


Riding Waves

by RecklessDoodler



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-14
Updated: 2017-12-13
Packaged: 2018-07-24 00:35:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 13
Words: 27,808
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7486335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RecklessDoodler/pseuds/RecklessDoodler
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After Robin's death, Regina struggles to cope and pushes away those who love her. When tragedy strikes, Emma makes a promise to herself that she won't give up on her. Swan Queen, with past mentions of Outlaw Queen. TRIGGER WARNINGS INSIDE.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> TRIGGER WARNING: RAPE AND VIOLENCE.
> 
> The warnings are there for a reason, so please pay attention to them and if you think reading this will trigger you or affect you badly in any way, please stop here. There is a rape scene in this chapter.

Her first clue that this was a bad idea should have been the fact that she couldn’t really remember getting here in the first place. In fact, the last few days had all been a bit of a blur. Like she’d finally gone completely numb inside. She’d slipped on a tight red dress and black heels, put her make up on in a daze and wondered around until she’d found herself at this place, not really sure what her aim was. All she was aware of was that this was better than being at home, alone with her thoughts as she had been for the past few months since… Well, since everything changed.

The bar was busy, the music drowning out any of her remaining thoughts and the alcohol slowing what was left of them. When she felt a hand on her arm, and turned to face a tall stranger, with a strong jaw line and bright blonde hair, she wasn’t hesitant to make use of the distraction. Soon, she found herself swaying with him on the dance floor, his hardness pressed into her lower back, alerting her to his arousal. For a moment, with her eyes closed, it could have been him. She might have let herself believe it. But she crushed that thought as quickly as it arose, by spinning in the strangers arms, drinking in the sight of him and claiming his lips with her own. He was more than happy to respond, hands wondering to her backside and kneading the flesh there as he kissed her, somewhat sloppily and greedily. She was thankful for the stark difference, if he’d kissed her half as tenderly as _he_ used to, she may not have been able to go through with this after all.

Moments later they were stumbling through the doors of the bar, out into the cold air. Goosebumps rose on her skin when he ushered her into the alleyway down the side of the bar, but she didn’t fight him. Once, she would have been offended at being used so cheaply. But right now, she couldn’t care less. She longed to feel anything other than the numbing pain that had become her constant companion, and perhaps this would do the trick. So she kissed him back as he slammed her into the wall, the rough brick rubbing the skin on her back raw. And then his hands were disappearing up past the hem of her dress and rubbing at her through her panties and she found herself moaning into his mouth, surrendering entirely to the moment and giving him what he wanted.

“Hmm, you like that, babe? You want me to fuck you?” He whispered excitedly in her ear.

She didn’t respond, other than to kiss him again, ferociously this time, as he gripped her thighs and lifted her, her legs either side of his waist and pushed her harder against the wall to hold her there. He continued muttering all the things he was going to do to her as he unzipped his pants and rubbed his member against her, her panties held aside by one hand. When he finally pushed his way inside of her, she was slightly surprised to find herself bone dry, and whimpered a little at the pain. Oblivious to her discomfort, he began taking her hard and fast, which became more and more painful with each thrust. She tried to use the pain to take her away, but every time she closed her eyes she saw bright blue and deep green and she just knew he’d be losing his mind if he could see her right now and suddenly she couldn’t breathe and she needed to get away, but the stranger was paying attention only to his own pleasure and wasn’t seeing the fear and hurt in the eyes in front of him.

“Stop,” she whimpered as her hands pushed uselessly at his chest, trying to create some distance between them and lessen the strength of his thrusts, but the man was too selfish and too close to his own release and he ignored her efforts and only held her tighter, eventually grabbing both of her small wrists in one large hand and holding them above her head as he continued to fuck her.

“Get off of me!” She yelled this time, wondering how it was that nobody had heard them yet, out in the open like this.

She wasn’t expecting the slap, his hand caught her cheek bone with a loud smack that seemed to echo and when the side of her face hit the wall, she saw stars and momentarily was incapable of anything other than feeling him inside of her, too dazed to move.

“Hold still,” he ordered, darkly, hand going to her throat now and holding just tightly enough to make her breathing wheezy and weaken her further, “you wanted this.”

Tears rose to her eyes at that, because yes, she had. She had asked for this. She had wanted to feel something and this was something, wasn’t it? Wasn’t this distracting her just like she’d hoped? She closed her eyes and grit her teeth and hoped that his intoxication wouldn’t slow his release too much. She wasn’t sure how much more of this she could bear.

“Hey! You two!” A voice rang out and the stranger released her so abruptly that she couldn’t lower her feet quickly enough, landing on the floor in a heap as he ran in the opposite direction down the alleyway.

She made no move to get up. Still disorientated from the slap and still without a single care for her own well-being as the puddle she lay in soaked her clothes, she simply gasped for breath.

“Regina?” The voice spoke again, cautiously this time, bewildered and worried and suddenly Regina recognized the voice and only then did she move to get up and get away.

“Oh my God, Regina.”

The second voice only fuelled her action, there was no way she could have this conversation, no way. And so she clambered to her feet and attempted to run in the same direction that the stranger had disappeared in but she suddenly felt more drunk than she had a moment ago and wondered if she was concussed and all she could do was grab onto the wall and try to hold herself upright.

“Regina!” The second voice called, and soon enough two pairs of hands were on her shoulders and she was panicking and fighting them, but they both released her immediately and she tried to remember that this was just Emma and David and they wouldn’t hurt her, but God she would rather they be two more strangers with bad intentions right now, because she can’t have this conversation, she just can’t.

“Shit, you’re bleeding,” Emma pointed out, instinctively reaching out to touch her face and then stopping herself just in time and instead raising her hands in surrender. “I won’t touch you, I’m sorry, Regina, I won’t touch you. It’s okay, it’s just us, you’re okay.”

Regina realised she was hyperventilating and leant back against the wall as she attempted to catch her breath. Her brain really wasn’t functioning and she had to wonder when she’d become such a lightweight, surely she hadn’t gotten through that many drinks? She looked over Emma and David and slowly tried to figure out what was happening. The man was gone, she was fine. But she hurt. She hurt all over and now she could tell that, yes, Emma was right, the side of her face, and also her back was wet with something sticky. She hadn’t noticed the blood before. Her legs were shaky, barely supporting her own weight, and that scared her more than anything because, usually, her solution to problems was to run, or at least walk, away and deal with it alone but right now, she didn’t have a choice. She was acutely aware that she was in no state to get herself home, or even back into the bar. She would have to accept their help and that was the worst part of all of this.

David hadn’t moved since he’d found her, held up against the wall, being fucked by some guy in a dirty alleyway. Presumably, he’d been in shock from the moment he’d realized her identity. But he suddenly seemed to come to his senses and just before he took off on a run, he told Emma in a low and dangerous voice, “Take care of her, I’m going after him.”

“He didn’t do anything, it’s not what it looked like. I wanted it,” Regina tried to say, her words were slurred though and she wasn’t sure how much Emma had understood.

“He took off running and dropped you the moment he realized he’d been caught, Regina, I think this was exactly what it looked like,” Emma yelled back at her, and Regina realized for the first time just how frantic the blonde was, her eyes wide with panic, frightening Regina into silence for a moment.

“Regina-“ Emma’s voice broke before she could say whatever else she’d been planning on saying, but Regina followed her eye-line to the hem of her dress which was well above her hips, her panties were still scrunched up, leaving her exposed.

She straightened her dress as well as she could without falling over, still not quite ready for Emma’s physical help.

After a moment or so, Emma asked, “Why were you here?” and it took Regina some time to figure out where here even was. She had to glance around at her surroundings again. God, her mind was getting slower and slower.

“I- I don’t-“ was all she managed to get out before her knees finally buckled under her weight and she dropped back to the ground.

“Regina!” Emma shouted, quickly catching her head just before it hit the ground, no longer caring about any personal space she might need, she needed help more than she needed space. She tugged the brunette up a little, resting her head in her lap and stroking her hair out of her face, smearing blood across her hand and getting her first good look at Regina’s injuries in the process. While the right side of her face was looking bruised and swollen around the cheek, her left side had several cuts and grazes which bled profusely. Head wounds always did. Lifting her as gently as she could, she took a look at Regina’s back, which was also thoroughly grazed. She blinked back tears and choked on a sob, wondering how all of this could have happened. “You should have let me in,” she murmured quietly into Regina’s hair. The brunette’s eyes were closing now and she shook her a little to wake her up, “Stay with me, Regina,” she said.

“I don’t know what’s wrong,” Regina slurred, catching Emma’s eyes and breaking her heart with the fear in them.

“I think you’ve been drugged, but we’ll get you to a hospital, don’t worry, just hold on, okay?” As she said the words, she realized she hadn’t even called for an ambulance, what kind of sheriff was she? She glanced down the alleyway but David wasn’t returning, so she reached into her pocket and dialed the numbers.

As she spoke, she realized Regina was trying to take the phone from her. With the drugs in her system, she was doing a poor job of it, however.

“No… No hospital…” She mumbled as she struggled. Emma ignored her and only hung up when the ambulance was on the way.

“Regina, you need to be checked out, I’m about 99% sure you’ve been roofied and raped and- oh, God,” she turned her head away to throw up on the ground.

Regina could feel her awareness slipping away. Her vision had been reduced to dark shapes that she could no longer define, the sound of the bar music in the distance drowning out whatever Emma said next. She closed her eyes and surrendered to the pull of it. The last thought she had was that she hoped she wouldn’t have to open them ever again.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Regina comes to in the hospital.

The first thing Regina was aware of was unfamiliar heavy snoring. When had Henry started that? It had been a while since he’d clambered into bed with her in the middle of the night, but given recent events, it didn’t surprise her too much. She rolled over and reached towards the sound, but her hand instead came into contact with hair. Much too much hair to belong to her fourteen year old son. Eyes opening in a flash, she sat up quickly enough to startle the woman sitting next to her awake, snoring halting after a small gasp.

“Miss Swan, what are you doing in…?” Regina trailed off as she took in her surroundings. This was certainly not her bedroom. Glancing down, she noticed she was dressed in a pale blue hospital gown, and a quick peak down the garment confirmed her suspicion that that was indeed all she was wearing. A wave of nausea hit her then, and she barely turned her head quickly enough to avoid spewing all over the blonde, instead emptying what was left of her stomach onto the floor to the side of her bed. It tasted sour and she scrunched her nose at it and coughed and spat a few times to get the remainder out of her mouth. “What in the hell am I doing here?” she asked, frustration rising quickly. 

“Regina…” Emma said, voice quiet and cautious, “what exactly do you remember from last night?”

For a moment, Regina could recall absolutely nothing. She blinked a few times and tried to remember. Emma watched silently as she fought through the mind blank, and she flinched when it came back to the brunette suddenly, obvious by the widening of her eyes and sudden shaking of her fingers. The memories assaulted her like violent waves and Regina felt her thoughts swimming in their brutal current as she tried to make sense of it all. God, no. That couldn’t be right. She shook her head as if that could alleviate the pressure of it all. She wouldn’t have done that. She looked to Emma again and saw the confirmation of it in her teary, bloodshot eyes. She gripped the bed covers tightly, focusing on her knuckles as she struggled to gain control of her emotions. She didn’t dare to speak for a few minutes, not trusting herself to keep the sobs in the back of her throat. When she finally did open her mouth, the words came out monotone, “Well, I’m very embarrassed. When can I return home?”

Emma gaped at her. “You’re not serious?”

“Which part of that didn’t sound serious to you?” Regina deadpanned.

“Regina, you were assaulted last night. You have nothing to be embarrassed about. There was rohypnol in your system. That scumbag spiked your drink and you need to stay here until Dr Whale gives you the all clear.”

Regina was silent for a moment as she absorbed this new information. “I was drugged?” she asked, almost timidly.

“You don’t remember that part, huh?” Emma asked, her voice beginning to break, “You were almost incoherent by the time we got to you and you couldn’t stand on your own two feet. It wasn’t a drunk kind of incoherence… It was terrifying. You couldn’t keep your eyes focused on me.”

“I didn’t leave my drink unattended,” Regina stated.

“People are sneaky as hell, you know that. All he had to do was distract you for a couple of seconds and he could have dropped an entire pack of pills into whatever you were drinking.”

Regina bit the inside of her lip. 

“David wasn’t able to catch the low-life. So, before you start to forget, do you think you could describe him to me?”

“What does it matter?” Regina muttered, eyes downcast as she wrapped the covers tightly around her.

“What does it matter? How about he is a violent rapist and he’s loose in the town and will probably try it again tonight? How about the fact that you deserve justice?”

“I don’t deserve justice. I deserved what happened last night.” Regina wasn’t quite sure why she was speaking her mind without a second thought. She wasn’t stupid enough to believe that the blonde would understand. She knew she would disagree, would fight her on it, but she just didn't have the energy left to pretend anymore. What was the point? 

“No one deserves what happened to you last night.” The way that her voice wobbled as she spoke made Regina look up and the hurt written across Emma’s features surprised her. 

“You weren’t there. You don’t know what happened.”

“How about you explain it to me, then?”

One of the nurses chose that moment to poke her head around the curtain and smiled, albeit sadly, when she saw Regina was awake. “How are you feeling, Miss Mills?”

“Fine. You should tell Dr Whale that I’m ready to be discharged.”

The nurse gave her a sympathetic smile at that and ignored the indignant look on Regina’s face, “He’ll want to decide that himself after a few more check ups, I should think.”

“Well, please tell him to hurry up. I have things to be doing today.”

“I’ll tell him you’re awake and as soon as he’s finished with his other patients I’m sure he’ll be right in here.”

Regina huffed in response at her and Emma said nothing as the nurse disappeared for a moment and then returned with paper towels and began cleaning the vomit that she’d left on the floor. The brunette could feel Emma’s eyes on her, but she kept her own focused on her hands, nervously raking her fingernails over her thumbs until the nurse was gone.

“It’s stupid,” she said, finally, in response to Emma’s earlier question.

“You can tell me anything. You know that. I think I’ll understand more than you expect,” Emma said.

“I just needed to get out. I didn’t really care where. I just needed to be out of that huge, empty house.”

Emma immediately felt a sharp stab of guilt. If only she’d had Henry on a different night, or if she’d just told him to stay with Regina, completely, during the next few months, considering how difficult they would obviously be for the older woman, maybe she could have stopped all of this from happening.

“I thought, perhaps, the loud music and alcohol would help- help…”

“Help distract you?”

“Yes. Distract me. I didn’t go there with the intention of having a one night stand, but when that man approached me and asked to dance, I decided it couldn’t hurt.” And at least I wouldn’t have to spend the night alone, she thought. “I led him on, I let him-“ her voice cracked and she paused a moment to compose herself before continuing, “I let him do… that… at first… but he was being rough, it was painful… and by the time I asked him to stop, it was too late. He was too… into it. He couldn’t stop.”

Emma stood up as she stopped talking and Regina looked up to see her begin to pace and run a hand through her hair, before turning to face her, hands firmly on the bed and eyes locked on her own, “It’s never too late, Regina. If you told him to stop, he should have stopped, simple as that. Anything that carried on after that moment was rape.”

“He’s only human-“ Regina muttered, under her breath.

“Stop it!” Emma yelled, startling her, “Stop defending him. If this had been the other way round, if you’d found me like I found you last night, would you tell me I deserved it? That I asked for it and that he shouldn’t be held accountable?”

“That’s different.”

“How? How is that different?”

“I was the Evil Queen, Emma. I deserve to be punished. I deserved it when Henry rejected me for lying to him his whole life. I deserved it when Greg tortured me. I deserved it when that bastard fucked me. I deserved it when Robin was taken from me!” The dam behind her eyes broke the moment Robin’s name left her lips. She was painfully aware that it was the first time she’d spoken his name since the funeral, and now every single emotion she’d bottled up since then, reared its ugly head. Her sobs were loud, uneven, suffocating. Her sight reduced to blur behind the salty water. Emma was on the bed within seconds, arms wrapping tightly around her and Regina immediately sunk into them, burying her face in the crook of the blonde’s neck and muffling the ungodly noises coming from her mouth.

Emma couldn’t be sure for how long they sat there like that, her holding Regina as her entire body racked with sobs, but by the time her sobs turned into soft cries, Emma’s shirt was soaked through.

“You didn’t deserve it, Regina. You didn’t deserve any of that,” she whispered, “When I first came to town… That whole thing with Henry… I didn’t understand then. I didn’t know you then. You went through hell before you ever became the Evil Queen, and you didn’t deserve that either. You dealt with your pain in an extreme and unhealthy way but you’ve atoned for that several times over. You gave Henry all your love when I couldn't do it myself, you’ve saved this entire town from destruction, you’ve saved my life too many times to count. You literally went to hell and back for me. You’re a good person. You didn’t deserve any of this.”

Regina didn’t reply, but Emma noticed that her cries became a little softer. Emma didn’t push her, she held her for several more long moments before Regina slowly pulled away and rolled over, facing the wall. As much as she wanted to shake her and talk sense into her for as many hours as it took for Regina to feel just a tiny bit better, she could tell that now wasn’t the time. The brunette needed some space to think, to get her head around what was going on. She sat on the edge of the bed, listening to the sound of Regina’s breaths, until they became slow and deep and signalled that the brunette had drifted off again. Only then, for the first time in over twelve hours, did Emma get up and leave the room to get something to eat and drink.


	3. Chapter 3

**I may edit this chapter at some point, I feel like it needs work but I wanted to post something as I've already started working on chapter 4 :) hope you enjoy anyway.**

**As always, trigger warnings for discussion of rape.**

 

When Emma returned to the room not an hour later, she was asked to leave by the nurses. Regina had requested that she be left alone and the nurses weren’t about to argue with her. Emma had wanted to be there for Regina’s check up, but she was torn between looking after her friend and not wanting to cause her more stress, so she agreed to come back later. In the meantime, she decided to head back to the loft where she found David sitting at the table, twiddling his thumbs, eyes empty and surrounded by red rings, not surprising seeing as he had been out nearly all night trying to find Regina's assailant, to no avail.

“You okay?” She asked, bringing him out of his stupor.

He startled and turned to face her, apparently not having heard the door open, “I’m just… thinking it all over.”

“David, you still haven’t told me exactly what you saw, or written it up in a report… I got there in time to see Regina falling to the ground and him running but I didn’t get a clear visual on what was going on. You’d already startled him as I was coming around the corner.”

David seemed to gulp and Emma wondered again how this man, who was so kind and gentle and so adverse to any form of violence, ever really coped with the gruesome truths that one must inevitably deal with when ruling a Kingdom or patrolling a town. She’d be surprised if he wasn’t plagued by nightmares every night.

“He had her up against the wall,” David answered in a quiet voice, pausing a little as if lost, or haunted even, by the memory.

“Well, I figured that much,” Emma responded, grimly.

“His hand was- his hand was around her throat, choking her. His other hand… it was on- on her…” he trailed off but patted his chest to indicate what he was trying to say.

Emma took a steady breath to keep her eyes from popping, she’d cut the bastard’s balls off and choke him with them, she thought.

“She sounded distressed. When I first heard voices, I assumed it was two lovebirds getting carried away, but… She definitely shouted or yelped or something and he was muttering to her. I couldn’t hear it clearly enough to make out what he was saying, though.”

“I’ll kill him.”

David looked as though he might try and calm her for a moment, ask her to stay rational, but the memory of what he’d witnessed was burned into his brain and his lips formed a tight, thin line and he said, softly, “I wouldn’t blame you.” Then he held her gaze for a moment, contemplating something.

“What?” She asked.

“Have you asked her why she didn’t? Kill him, I mean? Use one of her fireballs? Was it the roofie? Or did he incapacitate her in some other way? I wouldn’t have thought that a drug like that could stop her magic from working completely, and surely he knew who she was, which makes me wonder if he’s holding something over her. He’s either an idiot with a death-wish or he’s done something that’s made him sure that she won’t come after him.”

“I’d assumed it was just the drugs disorienting her or something,” Emma said in a voice so quiet, it was almost a whisper. “I haven’t really been thinking clearly enough to deal with this properly. I need to pull my shit together,” she berated herself. “I’ll check with doctor Whale about exactly what they found in her system, maybe he mixed some kind of potion with the roofie. Something that could have tied her magic. I don’t think she’s tried to do anything with it since she’s been in the hospital, so it might still be restrained. As for your theory about him holding anything over her, we better get her to talk. Did you write down your description of him?”

“Yeah, but it’s not much. He had blonde hair, was a little taller than me, quite bulky.”

“Well there are less blondes than brunettes in town, so actually that narrows it down quite a bit. We need to get Regina to open up though, she’ll be able to identify him for sure, once she decides that she wants to.”

“Henry, wait-!” Mary-Margaret shouted from behind the closed door of the loft, but the door swung open anyway, and a distraught teenage boy barrelled through it.

“Ma, take to me to see her.”

Emma’s eyes went straight to her mother’s, “Did you-?”

“You’ll be pleased to know that she didn’t tell me anything,” Henry shouted at her, spittle flying from his mouth, “but someone needs to. She’s my mom. You can’t tell me she’s in the hospital and not tell me what’s wrong.”

“Henry, we’re only trying to look out for you.”

“By lying to me?” Henry shouted back. “I don’t know anything, I don’t know if she’s sick, or dying, or got hit by a car, or… I don’t know anything! All I know is that she’s bad enough to be in the hospital, so just tell me something!”

“Someone hurt her, kid. She was attacked last night. She’s going to be okay but she’s in a bad place, she needs some time.”

“How badly is she hurt? Who did it?” Henry asked, murder in his narrowed eyes and Emma didn’t doubt for a moment that he wouldn’t hesitate to go after the bastard if he knew what he’d done and who he was.

“She’ll make a full recovery, she just got bashed around a bit,” Emma cringed at her own description of the events, “As for who it was, we don’t know. We’re trying to figure it out and I promise you that we’ll bring him to justice the moment we do.”

“So why can’t I visit her?”

“You know what your mom’s like, kid. She would kill me if I let you see her like that. But I’ll talk to her, okay? And I’ll bring you to her as soon as I can. For now, please just listen to me. I know how hard it is, but I need you to trust me. Can you do that?”

Henry’s expression softened, albeit only slightly, “I’ll give you a day. Then I’m going to the hospital no matter what you say.”

Emma nodded, knowing how to pick her battles. This was one thing that she couldn’t fight him on.

* * *

 

When she got back to the hospital, Regina seemed to have changed her mind about visitors, or at least, blonde visitors. She was allowed to enter her room and take a seat by the brunette’s bedside again, but Regina didn’t make any attempt at conversation. In fact, she barely acknowledged Emma at all, but Emma knew that she hadn’t told the nurse let her come back in for no reason. Part of her obviously liked the fact that Emma was there, part of her wanted her, and, no mater how small, that part was enough for now.

“Regina, I need to ask you something,” Emma said, softly, after a while. She knew damn well that Regina was already blaming herself for what had happened, so she didn’t want to sound at all accusatory. She was also terrified that maybe he hadn’t incapacitated her magic at all, that she had so much self loathing within her that she’d made a conscious decision to let the bastard continue his assault.

“Miss Swan, I don’t feel anymore like talking than I did during your last visit.”

“We’re back to Miss Swan, now?”

Regina didn’t answer her, eyes staring into the wall opposite with a dead look about them.

“This is important, Regina.”

When the brunette still didn’t respond, Emma sighed and took a breath before asking, or rather blurting, “Why didn’t you fireball his balls?”

Regina huffed in response, but still said nothing.

“Gina, please talk to me.”

“It’s gone.”

“What?”

“My magic, it’s gone. Now, will you leave me alone?”

“Your magic is gone?”

“Are you deaf or just stupid?”

“I heard you. I’m just confused. How can it be gone?”

Regina rolled over to face the wall, “I want to go to sleep.”

“I know you aren’t one for difficult conversations, I know you like to think you can handle everything on your own, but you don’t have to. You have a family by your side now. You have me. Tell me what you’re thinking, I need to understand what’s going on if I’m going to be able to help.”

“I made this mess, I’ll clear it up myself.”

“You didn’t do anything. A rapist did.”

“My stupidity, my weakness, put me in that situation. Nothing else did,” she snapped, “Besides, maybe it’s a good thing that my magic is gone,” she added in a whisper, “Henry will probably be glad to hear that.”

“Henry will be devastated.”

“Henry…” Regina repeated quietly, a sad smile on her face, “What does he know?”

“He knows that someone hurt you, he doesn’t know how or why, I wanted to talk to you before I told him anything.”

“He can never know.”

“Of course we’d both prefer to shelter him from this. But we have to tell him something or he’s going to start snooping around. If he hasn’t started already…”

“I’ll talk to him, but I need a bit of time to decide what I’m going to tell him, and, as much as I want to see him, I’d rather he didn’t see me in here at all. Apparently, I have a concussion, so I need observation,” she said that last word with a roll of her eyes, “Do you think you can hold him off until the morning? If I agree to explain it all to him then?”

“Sure thing,” Emma told her, relieved that Regina didn’t need more time than that, before returning to her earlier, more solemn expression, “But I’m not letting you dodge what I came in here to ask you about. Tell me what’s going on with your magic.”

Regina sighed and rested her head back against the pillow, eyes on the ceiling, “It left with her.”

“What? With who? You mean someone stole it?”

“No. It left with her, the Queen.”

“You mean-“

“The moment she left me, I felt it. My dark magic was a part of her, not me.”

“What about your light magic?”

“I never learned to use that. I’ve only ever used it instinctively, it felt almost accidental every time.”

“And that instinct didn’t come to you last night?”

“This wasn’t like the time Zelena attacked me, Emma,” Regina muttered, knowing exactly what the blonde was thinking. “I knew I had to stop her, I knew I had to protect all of you, Snow and Charming’s baby… Our entire existence in this timeline. Last night, I had nothing to fight for-“

“Because you thought you deserved it,” Emma finished for her.

Regina nodded.

“There’s something else. Isn’t there?” Emma asked, green eyes staring straight through her hollow ones.

“I- I feel weaker, Emma. Ever since she left me. Even if I had complete control over my light magic, the power behind it just isn’t the same. I don’t feel right. I don’t feel like me.”

Emma faltered for a moment. She’d been scared of this since the moment her and Snow convinced and helped Regina to split herself. They’d made the decision so quickly, without really thinking it through and for a moment, as she’d watched the queen emerge from Regina’s shaking body, she’d been terrified that she’d be left a quivering shell of a person, not unlike the worrisome Dr Jekyll without his Hyde.

When Regina had seemed mostly unchanged, she’d been relieved, but a part of her still twitched with worry. She hadn’t been able to tell what was off, until now. Regina had seemed… not weaker, but the light in her eyes had gone out. Seeing as no one else had noticed, seemingly including Regina herself, Emma had let it slide up until now.

“It was a mistake, wasn’t it? Getting rid of her. As much as you hated her, she was a part of you.”

“That’s the thing. I didn’t always hate her,” Regina said, softly, “there was a time when I needed her. She wasn’t purely a result of Rumple’s influence and my rage. She was almost like a defense mechanism, for me.”

“What do you mean?”

Regina hesitated a moment before saying, “Did Tinkerbelle ever tell you how we met?”

“Yeah, she led you to Robin.”

“Yes, but we didn’t meet because of that,” Regina explained, “We met because, in a moment of weakness, I decided that my life was no longer worth living.”

“You mean-?”

“I tried to kill myself. Yes,” Regina interrupted.

Emma was taken aback for a moment, she’d seen many sides of Regina, and she couldn’t imagine any one of those ever deciding to give in, to end it, no mater what she was going through. “Why?” she whispered.

"I was married to the King," Regina said, simply, as though that should be all the explanation Emma needed. When the blonde said nothing but stared back at her with wide, questioning eyes, she continued, "He didn't exactly treat me with kindness and I found myself locked away in my chambers most of the time. I had lost Daniel, and I just couldn't see the possibility of a happy ending anymore. I had nothing to go on for. Tinkerbelle saw me falling from my balcony and stopped me before I could hit the ground."

"I-I'm sorry. I've never really thought about your marriage, I had no idea it was like that for you."

“There’s a lot that you don’t know about me, Swan. There’s a lot that no-one knows,” she said, almost to herself, with a far-off look in her eyes, before she shook her head sharply and continued, “Anyway, the Evil Queen wouldn’t tolerate that kind of behaviour. Much like that red jacket is your armour, she was mine.”

Emma blinked, she was sure she’d never told Regina the story behind her jacket, though the brunette was observant, so she supposed she shouldn’t be entirely surprised that she’d figured it out on her own.

“Rumple was teaching me to be strong, but he wasn’t forcing me to listen to him. I clung to her strength just like he knew I would. He knew I needed her as much, if not more, than he did. She is how I survived the rest of my time with that disgusting old man who called himself a King.”

When Emma said nothing for a moment, Regina continued, “Perhaps I shouldn’t talk about your grandfather in such a way in front of you. I wouldn’t in front of Snow. But you never met the man, so I suppose I’m not exactly taking anything away from you by doing so.”

“My mom has no idea, does she?”

“No, she doesn’t.” Regina was surprised to see tears swimming in Emma’s eyes when she looked back at her.

“I’m sorry, Regina. I had no idea.”

“Well, now you know,” Regina said, “and you also know what kind of a person I was before the Queen, what kind of a person I’m becoming, once again. Weak. Pathetic.”

“Woah, woah, woah, no,” Emma stopped her, “Trying to kill yourself doesn’t mean you’re weak. Everyone has their limits, Regina. I mean, I met your mother. You’d already been through hell before you even met the King and Tinkerbelle mentioned that she didn’t meet you until years after you’d already been married. You’d held it together through so much more by the time you were - what, twenty? - than most people have to deal with in an entire lifetime. With or without the Queen, Regina, you are the strongest person I have ever met.”

“Well, it doesn’t feel that way.”

Emma reached out to put a hand over Regina’s but the brunette flinched and she quickly retracted hers.

Regina huffed in frustration, tears coming to her own eyes now, “and that about sums up my point…”

“It’s okay to be affected by what happened to you, Regina, that doesn’t make you weak. That makes you human.”

“This is the first time I’ve had to deal with something difficult without the Queen in over thirty years.”

“True, but now you have something that you didn’t have before. You have a family who’ll fight for you.”

Regina did smile at that, she even glanced down at Emma’s hand on the bed as if considering reaching for it. She didn’t, but it was clear to Emma that she wanted to.

The blonde returned her smile, “But…” she said, “If you still need her… not for exacting vengeance or for putting up barriers to help you cope… but to feel like a whole person again, we’ll figure it out. We’ll find a way to put you together again, we’ll always find a way.”

“I’m not sure how many takers you'd have for that quest,” Regina mumbled.

“Snow and I may have convinced you to use the serum, but you were the one who wanted her gone. We loved you as you were, with both light and dark inside, and I’m so sorry if we didn’t make that clear to you before.”

“Honestly, I don’t think I’d have believed you if you had,” Regina mused, “If Rumple would hurry up and find his way back, he might have an idea about where to start, but I supposed we’re on our own for this one. Perhaps we could head over to the library at some point this week and do some reading?”

“Sounds good. Henry will be up for helping, he’ll probably be able to get through half of that library by tomorrow morning. He could do with the distraction while he’s waiting to talk to you.”

“Don’t let him stay out too late.”

Emma rolled her eyes and sat back in the chair, “Mary-Margaret and David wouldn’t allow it, they worry about him more than you do, sometimes.”

“I wonder how well they’re coping with him, I can’t imagine it being easy to be around him right now.”

“Last I heard, David was offering to take him driving again.”

Regina’s eyes widened at that and Emma carried on before she could say anything.

“But Mary-Margaret seemed to be shutting that idea down pretty effectively.”

“You should head back over there,” Regina said with a sigh, “Henry probably needs you more than I do, at the moment. Buy me a sudoku puzzle before you leave, though, I need something to do in this wretchedly dull place.”

“You sure?” Emma asked.

“Positive.”

 

Please review :)


	4. Chapter 4

**This was a bit rushed but I'd rather get something out than nothing at all.**

**Trigger warnings for mentions of rape still apply and there is also violence in this chapter.  
**

  
The next morning, Emma brought Henry along in her yellow bug to the hospital, where Regina had asked her to wait in the car park while she checked herself out. Whale had insisted that she stay with someone for one more night just in case her concussion resulted in any more symptoms, so she had agreed to go back with Emma to her place. She’d not really seen much of the house before, but she preferred the idea of staying there to being cramped into the loft with all of the Charmings like Mary-Margaret had suggested.   
  
Emma watched Henry tapping his foot nervously as they waited and placed a gentle hand on his knee to calm him, earning her a small smile. They both sat in silence, watching the exit doors of the hospital across the greenery. Each time the door opened, Emma watched Henry hold his breath a little. She’d learned on the way here that there was nothing she could say to comfort him. Until he saw his mom in one piece with his own two eyes, he’d expect the worst and wouldn’t be reassured.   
  
When the brunette finally emerged from the double doors, Henry’s gasp was immediate and even Emma had to stifle one. Somehow, Regina’s injuries looked a thousand times worse just knowing that their son’s eyes were on her. Despite an obvious attempt to cover it with make up, the bruise on the side of her face was still a vivid purple and had begun to yellow around the edges as the slow process of healing without magic began. Emma berated herself for not offering to bring the colouring down with magic, but healing internal wounds wasn’t easy and it seemed pointless to use her magic if it wasn’t going to reduce Regina’s pain at all and the brunette hadn’t asked it of her.   
  
“He hit her?” Henry asked, jaw tightening by the second, making him look more like a young man than the boy that he still was.  
  
I wish that was all he did, Emma thought to herself.  
  
“What else did he do? What other injuries does she have?” Henry asked, as though he’d read her mind.  
  
“She has a concussion. I healed the smaller injuries the night I found her.”  
  
Henry’s was distracted from his questioning as Regina approached the car, an apprehensive smile on her face as she saw him. He quickly climbed out of the bug and embraced her, albeit very gently, mindful of hurting her. Regina clung to him as though she’d gone much longer than just a couple of days without him. He then climbed into the back of the bug so that she could take the front seat. Emma didn’t miss the grimace of pain on Regina’s face as she got in, however much the brunette tried to hide it.   
  
Henry sat in the middle seat in the back so that he could lean forward into the gap between their two chairs, “What happened, mom?” he asked.  
  
Regina chuckled solemnly, “You couldn’t wait until we get home for the interrogation?” she asked, before adding under her breath so only Emma could hear, “I could do with some bourbon, beforehand.”  
  
“No, I can’t,” Henry replied, simply, as Emma put the bug in gear and reversed out the car park.  
  
Regina took a slow, shaky breath in and Emma wondered if she was capable of telling the story without losing control, the brunette’s eyes were already looking damp.  
  
“I was being careless, Henry…. I-” she began.  
  
“Don’t do that.”  
  
“Don’t do what?”  
  
“You haven’t even told me what happened yet and you’re already blaming yourself. Don’t do that. Please,” Henry said and Emma had to suppress a proud smile.  
  
“Okay, I’m sorry,” Regina relented. “I was out late and I let someone- I mean, someone fooled me into believing I could trust them, when really they were just looking for someone weak… or in a bad place, I suppose.”  
  
Emma saw Henry nod slowly in her peripheral vision.   
  
“I spent some of the evening with him, he seemed normal enough. But once we got outside, he attacked me. My magic isn’t working as it was before, so I couldn’t defend myself, not until your mother and grandpa turned up. They saved me.”  
  
“Why did he try to hurt you?” Henry asked.  
  
Regina hesitated and risked a side glance at Emma before saying, “He must have known who I was, suspected that I had money. I had been drinking, I was clearly in a vulnerable position and he tried to take advantage of that.”  
  
“You’re lying.”  
  
“What?” she frowned and turned to face him, “Why would you say that?”  
  
Henry glared right back at her, the only one in town capable of staring down Regina Mills, “You’re talking weird.”  
  
“I am not.”  
  
“You are, I know you too well, mom. You have to tell me the truth. Something worse than that happened. Everyone’s been weird, both of you and grandma and grandpa. Everyone’s been giving each other looks over my shoulder when they think I’m not paying attention. You’re all lying to me.”  
  
“Henry Daniel Mills-“  
  
“Will you stop treating me like a child? I’m sick of being out of the loop all the time because everyone is trying to protect me.”  
  
“Henry! That’s enough,” Emma said, before Regina could answer him. This was a full blown argument waiting to happen, Henry had been ready to explode for too long now and she wasn’t about to watch him fall apart in front of Regina. “You need to trust us. Your mom doesn’t need this from you right now.”   
  
Perhaps it was a low blow using the guilt card to get him to comply, but it worked. Henry settled back into his chair, muttering a quiet, “Sorry,” and Regina closed her eyes in relief.   
  
“So,” Emma said, in a tone as cheery as she could manage in the circumstances, “what are we doing tonight? Movie? Dinner?”  
  
“While I appreciate your intentions, Emma, I-“ Regina’s words were cut off by a sharp intake of breath and Emma turned to see her staring at something through the front window. She followed her line of sight just in time to catch the smirk on the face of a blonde man walking the opposite direction down the sidewalk as they drove past.   
  
Emma didn’t hesitate to drive a sharp u-turn, causing Henry and Regina to grab hold of the car doors as she slammed her foot on the accelerator. It only took Henry a second to figure out what had happened. That man on the sidewalk was the one who had hurt his mom. He looked at Regina, filling with rage as he watched her squeeze her eyes tightly shut, no doubt not wanting to lay eyes on that creep ever again. When he looked back to the man, he had took off running, glancing back at the car before darting down a side road. There would be no place to hide here, Henry thought, all main roads, fewer buildings. They would catch him and when they did, he’d be sorry.   
  
It only took Emma perhaps ten seconds to catch up to him and swing the car round onto the pavement, blocking his path and forcing him to turn back as she threw open her car door and darted out after him.  
  
“You sorry son-of-a-bitch,” Emma muttered as she sprinted after him, eyes firmly set on her target. She’d taken down far larger and faster men than him before.   
  
Underneath the fear and anger, there was an almost joyous feeling surfacing at the thought of what she would do to this man. She’d spent hours by Regina’s hospital bed while she’d been waiting for her to wake up, imagining the types of pain she could inflict on him. She would strip him of any dignities he had left by the time she was done… Kick the living daylights out of him while he was down… His dick would be the first thing to-  
  
A large shape moved past her so quickly that she had to blink twice before she recognized it as Henry and for a moment she wondered if she’d ever seen him run that fast. Just as she began to register what was happening, Henry caught up to the bastard ahead of her and leapt straight onto his back, tackling him to the ground. He was back up in an instant, a foot landing heavily on the man’s head with a sickening crack. Henry dragged him into an upright position by the lapels of his jacket and screamed in his face, “What did you do to her?!”  
  
Emma reached out for him but he shoved her back with enough force to throw her to the floor. She landed with a thud on her ass and looked on with disbelieving eyes as Henry got up close in the man’s face, so they were nose-to-nose. It terrified her. Never had she imagined her sweet Henry could have contained this much violence within him.  
  
“Answer me!” He screamed.   
  
“Your mom is a whore,” the man spat at him, his words wet with the blood that dripped from his nose to his lips. “The slut begged me for it, I only gave her what she wanted.”  
  
“You raped her?” Henry asked, his voice suddenly nothing but a whisper, sounding more like the young boy that he was.   
  
That was what it took to snap Emma out of her daze. She climbed back to her feet and grabbed hold of Henry’s shoulders, attempting to pull him back, but he was far stronger than he looked. He didn’t even budge.  
  
The man’s sickening smile was all that Henry needed to know the answer to his question, “And I’d do it again, she was so tight, a fucking good lay.”  
  
Henry reared back and brought his fist hard against the man’s face, knocking him back to the ground. He followed it with another punch, and a third, and a fourth, before Emma attempted again to pull him away again.  
  
“Henry! Henry, listen to me! You need to stop! Let me arrest him!” She screamed, trying desperately to hold onto him.  
  
Her son wasn’t hearing a word she was saying, she could tell by the focused look in his squinted eyes, the tightness in his jaw. He was too strong for her, unstoppable in his blind rage. Emma could only helplessly tug at him as he continued his assault until the man was laying in a fast-growing puddle of his own blood.   
  
“Henry, please! Your mom wouldn’t want this for you. Please.” She repeated the words like a mantra, until finally, he seemed to slow a little, the man beneath him long since passed out. She watched as he stepped back, looked around as if to regain his bearings, then spat on the man and gave him a final kick before collapsing into Emma’s arms. She held him tight as sobs began to rack his entire body. Her shoulders were damp with his tears and her clothes smeared with blood from his hands when he finally caught his breath and muttered, “I’m not sorry.”  
  
“It’s okay,” She said, at a loss for words as she rubbed his back soothingly, “It’s okay, I understand.”  
  
She looked over his shoulder at the man on the ground who still hadn’t budged. She was relieved to see a soft rise and fall of his chest, but she would have to call the ambulance soon or else she couldn’t be sure he’d make it. If she’d been the one to inflict the damage, she may have cared less, but she would not allow her son to spend the rest of his life with murder hanging over his head.  
  
She reached into her pocked for her cell but found it empty. She gently released Henry and tried the other pocket, nothing.  
  
“Do you have your phone on you?” She asked.  
  
“I left it in the car.”  
  
“That makes two of us,” she said with a sigh. She debated for a moment whether it would be better to leave Henry here to watch over the pummelled man on the floor as she retrieved it or to send him back to Regina covered with blood as he was. They couldn’t both go and leave the bastard here alone, she wouldn’t risk the chance of him waking up and scrambling away, however small that possibility was in his current condition.  
  
“I’ll get it,” Henry decided for her, seemingly having read her thoughts, “I’ll kill him if I stay here.”  
  
She nodded as he jogged back to the car, all the while resisting the urge to finish the job herself. Her clenched fists twitching.   
  
“Ma!” Henry yelled from up the road.  
  
She startled, adrenaline still pumping rampantly around her body.  
  
“Mom’s gone!”

 

**Please review!!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's been so long since I updated, I've been out of the country for a while now and suffering from jet lag since I got home. This is a somewhat short chapter but I'm hoping to find enough time to start updating weekly. Thanks to everyone who's sticking with me :)

Emma called David immediately, with only a very short and vague explanation of what had happened, "Henry crippled the creep and Regina is missing," to be exact, and the five minutes it took for David to reach them felt like the longest of her life. Emma barely expanded upon her description of events before leaving him to deal with the injured man on the ground and taking off with Henry in the passenger seat of the bug once again.

"She can't have gone far. How long were we gone for? Ten, fifteen minutes?"

"I have no idea," Henry said, "What if she poofed herself away, though? Then she could be anywhere."

"Her magic isn't working properly, remember?"

"Yeah, it's faulty but it's not gone completely. Maybe she had a panic attack or something and it triggered it, like instinct."

"I really hope not, kid, otherwise she could be anywhere by now," Emma muttered, "Where first? Her vault or her house?"

"Vault. That's usually her go-to when she wants to be alone… But…" Henry hesitated, "I don't think we'll find her in either of those places."

"Why not? Where else could she be?"

Henry paused before answering, "I don't know."

They drove to both places in silence, Emma's foot pushing way too hard on the accelerator each way. It turned out that Henry was right. The moment he'd said it, Emma had known he would be right. Regina's vault was eerily empty, not a single sound reaching that far underground, the halls still and silent. Regina's house was much the same, her bed still made from the day she'd gone to the club.

"Told you so," Henry said as they headed back to the car.

"Well, where the hell is she then?" Emma asked, as she reached for her phone again.

"Ma, she didn't answer the first fifty times you tried to call her and she won't answer now."

Emma ignored him and listened to all ten rings before being hit with the voicemail beep again, "Gina, it's me. Again. You don't have to tell us where you are if you really need to be alone but you do have to tell us that your safe, Henry's scared," she said, her harsh tone softening before she added, "I'm scared."

"Maybe… we should give her some space," Henry said, hesitantly.

"But what if… What if-"

"Ma, David has that jerk being checked over in a cell at the station, he can't hurt her again."

"She has concussion, Henry, she could pass out or-"

"I'm just as scared as you are, ma, but I know mom. Sometimes she needs time alone to process things. She'll be okay for a little while. If we panic, we won't be able to think straight. We need to calm down and try and figure out where she might have gone."

"Okay… okay," Emma said, taking a few deep breaths to steady herself, "When did you get so wise, kid?"

Henry shrugged at her and grasped her hand in his larger one, "Can we buy a sandwich or something? Neither of us has eaten yet today."

A little while later, they ate their grilled cheese sandwiches on a bench at the docks, looking out to sea, both deep in thought.

"So, what's going to happen to him?" Henry asked as he took his final bite.

"If I have things my way, he'll never see the light of day again," Emma said, voice so cold it sent shivers up Henry's spine.

He nodded in silent agreement, "Will he have a trial?"

"I guess he'll have to. Seems kind of pointless to me, though. Do we really have to follow the rules of the outside world of law with something so black and white?"

"Can we execute him?"

Despite being witness to his earlier outburst of violence, his statement took Emma aback and she turned to face her son properly, "Henry, killing him won't make you feel any better. Trust me."

"I doubt there's anyone who'd miss someone like him. He shouldn't be in Storybrooke. Maybe we can at least send him over the town line."

"So that he can hurt women in the real world, instead?" Emma pointed out, "That's why he's going to be locked up, kept off the streets, so that he can't do anything like this ever again."

"It just doesn't seem like enough to me," Henry muttered, "I've never seen mom hurt like this, before. Not by anything."

"Me neither," Emma agreed, solemnly. "Your mom is strong though, you know that. She'll pull through."

"I wish I'd hit him harder," Henry said under his breath.

Emma didn't reply other than to grasp his shoulder with a gentle hand. Violence is not the answer was a lesson for another day.

A little while later, Henry said, in a quiet voice, "Let's make hot dogs, tonight. Mom likes to pretend that she doesn't like greasy food but I know that she cooks it late at night when she's stressed or has big meetings coming up, usually she waits until after she's sure I'm asleep. I think she could really use some comfort food."

Emma laughed at that, "I knew it! There's no way that woman was sustaining herself on garden salads from Granny's."

"You can't tell her I told you, though. She has to believe that we believe that she's really unhappy about the hot dogs, okay? And that we're only making her eat something so greasy to keep her strength up." Henry held out his fist and Emma bumped it with her own to seal the deal.

When her phone began to ring a moment later, they startled so quickly that the two paper bags filled with grilled cheese sandwich crumbs fell to the floor, both of them standing and reaching into Emma's pocket at the same time before Emma snatched her cell first and said to Henry, "I got it."

She answered it so quickly that she didn't even catch the name on the screen, "Hello?" she asked, heart hammering in her chest as she waited for the reply.

"Emma? I'm sorry."

"Gina," Her name left Emma's lips with a sigh of relief which was palpable across the phone line.

"Mom?" Henry asked, loudly enough so that Regina could hear him through the call as he scooted about as close as he could to Emma without quite sitting on her lap.

"Henry, honey, I'm fine, I'm sorry I made you worry."

"It's okay, Regina, we're just glad you called," Emma said, "Where are you?"

"I'm not entirely sure. I may have lost my bearings, I've only just found signal."

"How did you manage to get lost in your own town?" Emma asked, surprised she was able to gently tease the other woman despite the chaos going on in her brain.

"I went to the stables for a horse," Regina admitted, "I didn't realise how far I'd ridden this time."

"Okay," Emma replied, saving her questions for a later date, "Stay where you are. Do you know how to share your location with me?"

"I already told you, Emma, I'm not sure where I am."

"No, I know, yes, but your phone does. You should have an app called Find my Friends, open it."

"What's an app?"

Emma sighed and handed the phone over to Henry, "This is a job for you, kid"

Half an hour later, Henry had Regina's location on Emma's phone, and the two reached the stables to find one of the brown mares missing. Henry said that Regina had mentioned a couple times that the horse resembled Rocinante, her childhood horse, so it came as no surprise that this was the one she'd taken.

"Exactly how much riding practice have you had, Henry?" Emma asked as they switched out sneakers for riding boots and retrieved saddles and reigns from the storage room.

"Mom used to take me here all the time when I was younger. I haven't been for a while though. Not since you came to town, actually."

"You haven't ridden in four years? You want to wait here?"

"Oh, and I'm sure you've had so much practice. Come on, ma, we'll be fine. We'll go slow."

Ten minutes later they were heading uphill through the woods, Henry's mare trotting at a steady pace and Emma's stallion struggling behind.

"Don't clench your legs so hard, your boots are probably hurting his sides," Henry called back.

"I'm not!" Emma argued, "Something must have spooked him, he seems frantic."

"He's been like that since we left the stables, nothing spooked him. It's you."

"I'm not doing anything that you're not!" she complained.

Henry tusked and shook his head, carrying onward ahead of his mother.

"How much further?" Emma asked.

Henry glanced down at the phone in his hand, "She's only twenty minutes or so away, but it looks like we have to leave the trail up here."

"Great," Emma muttered.

The trail seemed like the hardest thing in the world at the time, but after leaving the path and leading her horse through low hanging, prickly branches and uneven terrain for a few minutes and gaining several cuts on her arms and face, she changed her mind. Henry led her over a shallow stream and up several hills until they reached a clearing. The hilltop was carpeted in thick grasses sprouting daffodils, and overlooked the town. The sun was almost set, just a deep orange glow left seeping over the skyline of Storybrooke.

"Mom!" Henry called out.

Unable to see beyond Henry's horse and hoping, rather than assuming, that this meant they'd reached Regina's destination, Emma called her horse to a stop and jumped off of its back, breathing a heavy sigh of relief as her feet came into contact with solid ground. She took the horse's reigns and followed Henry on foot as he continued to call out for Regina.

They found her facing away from them, knees held tight to her chest as she looked out at the horizon. She barely flinched at Henry's words, she'd probably heard them coming. Henry approached her slowly and sat down next to her.

"This is what I used to do. Before her. This is how I coped," Regina said, looking towards her horse for a moment.

Henry didn't reply, just took her smaller hand in his and joined her in watching what was left of the sunset. Wordlessly, Emma followed his lead, sitting on the other side of his other mother. Regina took her hand before she could offer it, and the three of them remained like that until darkness settled over them.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here you go :) as always, mentions of rape throughout but no descriptions in this chapter.

Hours later, the birds had begun to wake and Emma was still unable to sleep. Even Regina, after all she’d endured today, seemed to be deep in slumber, her head resting lightly on Emma’s shoulder since she’d rolled over sometime ago. Emma stroked some of her hair from her face, feeling protective of the older woman and enjoying the light weight of relief that came with knowing she was safe now.

As much as she’d have loved to spend the rest of the night like that, awake or not, with her hand rested against Regina’s forehead, her mind was restless and she was desperate to find out, from David, what exactly had occurred earlier. She was sure that Regina’s rapist was alive. She wanted to know if he was hurting, she wanted to know where David was keeping him and she wanted to know who exactly, that bastard was. Gently and so slowly that it took her five minutes, she shifted away from Regina and replaced her body with a pillow for her to rest against, before quietly leaving the room and sending a text to David.

If you’re awake, call me.

Sure enough, by the time Emma had gotten dressed, her phone began to vibrate.

“David?” She answered.

“Emma, are you okay?”

“Yeah. I mean, given the circumstances,” she said, “Where is he? Jail? Asylum? How hurt was he?”

“He’s got his own room in isolation in the asylum. Doctor Whale stitched him up in there,” David explained, before adding quietly, “he wasn’t all that gentle about it.”

“Which room?”

“Emma…”

“Dad, please. I can’t sleep. I might as well do some work. I just want to talk to him.”

“Wait until the morning, I’ll come with you.”

“I’m going now. Either tell me the room number or I’ll just figure it out when I get there.”

“Meet me outside in twenty minutes,” David relented, “I’ll show you.”

Emma made it to the asylum far quicker than David, who still apparently needed some time to wake himself up and get dressed. She sat on the curb outside twiddling her thumbs and wishing she had a pack of cigarettes on her, despite the fact that she hadn’t smoked in over fifteen years. The stress was too much.

When he finally arrived, they nodded once at the nurse who knew immediately what they were there for and gave them a nod back, giving them the all-clear to continue. They descended down to the bolted rooms in silence, David weary with fatigue and Emma focused on her goal. She slid open the slot in his door and peered in.

“Can I help you?” He asked and for the first time, Emma noticed that he was European.

He didn’t look anywhere near as bad as Emma had anticipated, everything was scabbed over and the discolouration of his face looked faded. She supposed that perhaps he would look worse by the end of the day, after the bruises had had some time to break through properly.

“Who are you?” Emma asked.

“My name is Tom, I work in the spa with the three pigs,” he answered with a smirk, displaying sharp-looking teeth that gave him a predatory look.

“That’s a lie.”

“My, aren’t you good at reading people.”

“Stop with the bullshit, buddy, and give me a name. We’ll find out sooner or later, anyway.”

The man leaned in then, and Emma noticed his hollow cheeks and piercing eyes, there was something almost hypnotising about them.

“Well, that would be…” he leaned closer until his eyes took up the entire slit in the door, “None. Of. Your. Business.”

His eyes were the weirdest blue Emma had ever seen, several shades all speckled about with a depth that you could drown in. His pupils enlarged as she looked into them, the blue around their edges receding until Emma was staring at her reflection within the darkness.

“Emma.” David said as he nudged her.

Emma blinked a few times and met his stare with a cold glare of her own, “I take it you don’t have any family or friends, a girlfriend even, who might be worried about your whereabouts?”

“I’m a bit of a lone wolf, I’m more about finding a warm body as and when I need it.”

Emma had to clench her fists at his statement, trying to focus on David’s reassuring hand on her shoulder.

“And I suppose it doesn’t matter to you who you hurt along the way.”

“If I’d had my way, she wouldn’t have suffered for much longer,” he said, his meaning clear.

Emma had to steady herself for a moment before asking, “Are you admitting that you were going to kill her?”

He didn’t answer. Instead, he backed up from the door slowly, hands raised to the side in an exaggerated shrug, before he sat down on the floor with his back to the far wall.

Emma gritted her teeth, “Fine. You don’t have to cooperate. Either way, it’ll be a hell of a long time before you see the light of day again.”

The man cackled at that, throwing his head back as he did so, “Oh, poor me.”

“We’ll see how you feel after a few weeks in here with no human contact,” Emma turned around the moment she finished her sentence, not willing to give him another chance to speak again, instead she stormed further down the corridor.

“Where are you going?” David asked, hurrying to keep up with her.

“To ask the only other person in here who may have the answers as well.’”

Knowing that the man on the other side of this new door was adequately restrained, Emma lifted the heavy lock and pushed forward into the room, meeting him face-to-face.

“What a lovely surprise,” The man drawled, “It’s been quite a while since I’ve had the pleasure of visitors.”

“I need answers, Hyde,” Emma stated.

“Well, depending on the importance of these answers you seek, there are a few things I require in return.”

“Help me and I’ll upgrade this room so you’re living in royalty,” Emma offered, “five star meals every night, a new mattress, maybe even a window.”

“Ooh, someone does sound desperate.”

“Are you going to help me or not?”

“Funnily enough, Saviour, comfort isn’t something I’ve had a problem with since I was placed here. I’ll turn down your offer for now, but go ahead and ask me your questions. Perhaps, I’ll be able to think of a prize more worth my while.”

Emma groaned inwardly, of course, none of this was ever going to be easy, “I take it you pay attention to the new people led down here.”

“Ah. You’re wondering about the fellow that your son so viciously attacked the other night.”

“How do you know that?” Emma asked, glancing back at David questioningly.

“The nurses down here do like to gossip. I hear he did quite the number on our lovely mayor,” Hyde sneered.

“Do you know who he is, or not?” Emma deadpanned.

“Certainly,” Hyde smiled, “I made sure to keep my eye on the more dangerous criminals of my world. You have quite a problem in your hands.”

“Straight answers only, Hyde. I don’t have the patience for your time wasting right now.”

“Oh, but it will be so much more fun to watch you figure this out on your own, and my life has been lacking in amusement as of late.”

Emma began to turn away, figuring that he was done helping her, but Hyde stood from his spot on the bed and said, “I do have one question for you that might lead you in the right direction.”

“What?” Emma asked, tightly.

“How is it, do you think, that a simple teenage boy, one who, I might add, has never worked out a day in his life, nor been a part of any brawl, was able to take down a grown man. A man who Regina was unable to get away from. Even without her magic, Regina surely has more experience in battle. She may have been reduced to a shrivelling shell of the woman she once was, but if that man hadn’t been strong at the time of the attack, she would have escaped him.”

“Love can be a powerful weapon,” Emma stated.

“Love didn’t enable your son to throw down a man of that size. You need to ask yourself, Miss Swan, what was the difference between the two circumstances? What was different about the man that Henry ploughed into yesterday morning, and the man who attacked your mayor a few nights ago?”

Emma furrowed her brow.

“I’m afraid that that is all you will receive from me, tonight. I do have one more thing to say, however,” Hyde continued.

“Get on with it,” David said with a clenched jaw, more than ready to get himself and his daughter away from the depraved souls locked away in this place.

“I do hope, my fair lady, that you didn’t leave that man’s little door window open.”

Emma’s eyes widened at the words, and David burst back down the corridor before she could respond. Slowly, and with a deep weight settling in the pit of her stomach, Emma backed out of the room, reset the lock, and turned to see David at the rapist’s window, shoulders slumped in defeat. She approached him, not wanting to see what she knew would be waiting. One glance through the slit in the door confirmed it. The injured man that had occupied the room not five minutes ago, was nowhere to be seen.

* * *

 

When Emma returned home, the sun still hadn’t risen to it’s highest point and Storybrooke was basked in dim morning light. She took a moment to put up a protection spell around the house before she entered and put every lock that she owned in place. David had ensured her that he would put out a warning to the public about the rapists unknown whereabouts, knowing that Emma would want, or need, to focus on Regina’s safety for now. Hopefully someone would recognise his face and report it later in the morning.

The house was quiet, but a quick look into the living room told her that there was activity going on somewhere. Regina was still fast asleep, no doubt she would need a few more hours than normal tonight, and wouldn’t stir until then. Henry, however, had awoken, and was missing from his spot in the fort. Emma smiled when she noticed the pillow he’d placed on Regina’s other side to replace himself, just like she had done. Regina looked incredibly comfortable cocooned between the two of them.

Emma looked around and noticed more than just natural light coming from the kitchen and headed through to find Henry sat at the table with a torch in one hand and the pages of his storybook in the other. He looked up as she entered.

“I’m trying to find out who he is,” he explained, needlessly.

“Hopefully, you’ll have better luck than me.”

“Is that where you were? With him?” Henry asked.

“I was looking for answers. I didn’t get any.” Emma didn’t dare tell Henry just yet that the man was missing. No doubt her son would be out of the house with a baseball bat before she could stop him. That was something which could wait until the day had truly begun. “Can’t find him in there?”

“I thought it would be easy, but there’s no one in here that looks exactly like him. I thought I’d found him a few times but there were subtle differences.”

“Are they any stories in there with people who aren’t illustrated?”

“The only people not shown are the ones who kept to themselves, lived more simple lives. I can’t imagine that that jerk was one of them.”

Emma sat next to him at the table and laid her head heavily in her own hands. She heard Henry put down the torch before she felt his arm wrap around her shoulders.

“It doesn’t matter how long it takes for us to figure him out,” Henry stated, “Either way, we won’t let him come near mom ever again.”

Emma looked up at him, eyes damp, “You’re right about that, kid.”


	7. Chapter 7

Regina didn’t wake up for another five hours, coming round groggily and with a throbbing pain behind her eyes.

“Morning, sleepy head.” Emma sang, as she sat up.

“I never had you pegged for a morning person,” Regina mumbled.

“You’re not wrong,” the blonde said, “It’s nearly midday.”

Regina’s eyes snapped open at that, “What? Why didn’t you wake me?”

“Well, it’s a Sunday. I figured you wouldn’t miss anything by getting some extra, much-needed sleep.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever slept in this late,” Regina sad, half to herself, looking genuinely confused.

“Speaking of,” Emma started, tone suddenly cautious, “I think you should take a few days off work next week.”

“What? Why?” Regina snapped, “So I can wallow in self-pity for a little longer?”

“Look, Regina-“

“No, you look. I will not sit here, twiddling my thumbs all week so that you can have some peace of mind. I’m fine. I need to keep busy and I’ll start by getting back to my house.”

“But we were gonna make pancakes,” Henry complained as he poked his head through the door.

“You and Emma are welcome to make pancakes, but I’ll join you both another day. Last night might have been just what I needed, but that’s quite enough slobbing around for the week.”

“Slobbing around?” Emma repeated, “Is that even a word?”

“Where’s my bag?” Regina asked.

“Look, Regina, you can’t leave,” Emma said, carefully, words dripping with guilt.

“I _can’t_?” Regina repeated, incredulous, “Why _can’t_ I?”

Emma took a moment before blurting out, “He’s out. He escaped. I have a protection spell around the house and I suppose you could do the same at your place but I’d rather stay with you. At the very least maybe we can both go to yours.”

Regina’s eyes widened at the news and she looked down at her hands which had begun to shake. “How?”

“What?”

“How? How did he get out?”

“I don’t know. I went to see him this morning, but didn’t get much out of him. I was speaking to Hyde when he got out, his door was still locked. Hyde made it sound like he got out through that tiny slot in the door.”

“He must have magic.”

“That was my first thought, too. But if he had magic as we know it, he could have poofed himself out of there whenever he felt like it. He wouldn’t have had to wait for the slot to be open.”

“This doesn’t make any sense,” Regina muttered, before glancing over at Henry, “he shouldn’t be here. I don’t want him anywhere near me, in case..” she trailed off, leaving the idea that the madman would come back for her up in the air.

Emma nodded in defeat, “I won’t let that man near you again, but I agree,” she looked sympathetically at Henry, “She’s right.”

“What? Ma, but, no-“ Henry started.

“No buts, kid. You shouldn’t be here. You can stay with Mary-Margaret and David in the loft for a while.”

“This is so unfair,” Henry stated, barely stopping himself from stomping his foot like a child. He knew there was no arguing this, though, and so instead he stormed off upstairs to gather his things.

“Where do we start?” Regina asked.

“Henry couldn’t find him in the book, but that doesn’t mean he’s not in there. If he has magic, though, he could be disguising himself, somehow.”

“Great.”

“Hey, we need to stay positive. We’ve fought worst things before.”

 

* * *

 

After dropping Henry off at the loft, Regina downright refused to go back to Emma’s while she continued working to find ‘Tom’.

“Listen to me, Swan. The protection spell around your house is great for when we’re sleeping, but I am not going to be cooped up inside all day like a prisoner. I won’t. It could be weeks before we catch him.”

“Not on my watch.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Regina, if I’m going to be investigating this guy, I might have to get pretty close. What are you going to do then?”

“I don’t know. Hurt him, maybe?” Before Emma could reply, she rolled her eyes, “Emma, seriously. I want to help. I’m the one that he hurt. If anyone is going to get this guy it’s going to be either me, or us. So you’re going to have to let me come with you.”

Emma had taken a handful of WANTED posters that David had created, to help distribute them. They spread a bunch of them throughout the streets before focusing on the town center. The more eyes they could get to see them, the better.

They were putting one up in Granny’s window, when someone caught Emma’s eye, a woman maybe a little younger than herself, her boyfriend at her side. Just as the woman opened her mouth to say something, Emma watched her boyfriend tug on her arm and pull her away with a stern look.

Taking Regina’s hand and dragging her with her, she jogged to catch up with the couple who were hurriedly trying to leave.

“Hey, did you recognize the man on the poster?” she asked.

“No, she didn’t. We didn’t,” her boyfriend answered for her, all too quickly, and Emma’s lie detector went off immediately.

“That’s not the truth, is it?” Emma stated more than asked.

“What?” the guy asked, an offended expression on his features as he grabbed his girlfriends hand and tried to drag her away again, “Rebecca, come on.”

“I saw the look on your face,” Emma said, addressing the woman again and ignoring her boyfriend’s pointed glare, “You know him. Please. He attacked… a friend of mine,” she squeezed Regina’s hand as she said so, letting her know she could trust her, “He’s dangerous and will likely do it again. Any information would be helpful.”

“She didn’t recognize him, okay? She was just looking-“

“Adam,” Rebecca stopped him with a hand on his arm, “this isn’t okay. We can’t let him get away with this.”

Adam let out an exasperated sigh at that, knowing he’d lost this battle unless he was going to put a hand over his girlfriend’s mouth.

“I have information. But I don’t want to tell you here. Is there somewhere safe that we could go?”

“Of course.”

The sheriff’s station was too obvious, and until Emma knew exactly what they were dealing with, she wasn’t about to take any risks. Not to mention, her living room was far more comfortable and less imposing than the hard wood chairs and one-way mirror in the interrogation room.

“We knew him in the other world,” Adam explained, “Everyone knew him.”

Emma’s expression tightened, “I had the feeling he was… infamous.”

“You could say that,” Rebecca said, “but back there, he had a deal. A deal with Hyde. He was on a leash of sorts and something tells me that that’s not the case anymore.”

“I’m assuming Hyde used him to keep everyone in line?”

“Look,” Adam said, “Hyde set out some pretty clear ground rules when we got here. If we were to tell you everything, and he were to find out, which he would, we’d both be dead by morning.”

“There must be something you can tell us,” Emma implored, “I promise, I will take this maniac down. The next time he hurts someone will be over my dead body.”

“Then that’s what’s going to happen,” Adam deadpanned.

“You wouldn’t have come here, if there wasn’t at least something you could tell us. I can tell,” Regina said, looking to Rebecca, “that you want to help. If this… man” she spat the word out with disgust, “isn’t stopped, he’ll keep going. What is there to protect you if you don’t help us?”

“He won’t hurt us,” Adam said, though he didn’t sound particularly confident.

“How can you be so sure?” Regina asked.

“We know which precautions to take.”

“How about you tell us which precautions to take then?” Emma snapped, “Or does the rest of this town’s safety mean nothing to you?”

“Emma,” Regina said, laying a gentle hand on her thigh that immediately softened the blonde’s demeanor.

Adam sat back into the couch with a look of defeat on his face, “I do care,” he muttered.

“You need to release a warning to the women of this town. It’s not safe to be out alone at night,” Rebeca stated.

“The men definitely have nothing to worry about?” asked Emma, “He seemed to have some pretty violent tendencies. I can picture him taking a bar fight way too far.”

“Only if he has specific problems with them,” Adam explained. “He hunts women, almost exclusively.”

Emma noticed Rebecca struggling to keep something like disgust off her face as he spoke.

“Can you give us a name? An address?”

“We don’t know his name. Most names people used for him were along the lines of beast, monster… As for where he lives, I’m pretty sure that Hyde was harboring him in the town hall before you two stopped him. After that, I figure he’s been drifting. I haven’t seen him around because, well, nobody will have seen him around during the day and we knew better than to be out at night.”

Regina flinched at that, Emma felt the hand still on her thigh tighten a little, nails digging into her skin through her jeans.

“Tell me more about his deal with Hyde.”

“He used him as a puppet. That beast would destroy the lives of anyone who dared defy Hyde and in return, Hyde would make sure that he was always well-f-“ he coughed, “well-looked after.”  
 

Emma raised an eyebrow at him, had he been about to say well-fed? Before she could ask another question, Adam’s restlessness seemed to reach its peak and he stood up abruptly, “So, that’s our advice. Stay home at night, warn others to do the same and maybe you should hire some men to patrol the streets. But as for getting rid of him, I don’t know what to tell you. That depends on the strongest witches and warlocks you have on your side. All I'll say is that I've never heard of anyone surviving an encounter with him before, your friend is incredibly lucky. He must be trying to lay low now that we're in this town. He knows he'll have more luck without attracting attention” he looked at Rebecca, “We’ve warned them, okay? Let’s go now.”

Emma struggled, unsuccessfully, to get more answers from them as they left, but Adam clearly felt they’d risked enough already. At least his need to protect his girlfriend was something Emma could understand. When it comes to the ones you love, rational thought can go out the window. She looked back at Regina after they were out of sight, she looked rattled, but as she caught Emma’s gaze, she managed a small smile.

“Well, that’s a start at least,” she stated.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's a little short (and late), I'm trying to get back in the swing of things. As always, please review and let me know what you think :)


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Short but important chapter :)

“What’s bothering you?” Regina asked, when she found Emma sitting stone still on the couch, a constipated look gracing her features.

“I just can’t figure it out,” Emma muttered.

Instead of replying, Regina sat next to her on the couch and rested a hand on the blonde’s.

Emma gave her a small smile, “I can’t figure out why he ran when David got there. If he really is as powerful as they say, he could have taken us on.”

“Was anyone attacked before me? Were there any cases that you might be able to link to him?”

“No, nothing. After Hyde went down everything carried on pretty perfectly. Should’ve known it wouldn’t last. Why-?“

“If I was his first attack here, maybe Adam was right about him wanting to remain relatively unknown for as long as he could. It makes sense. Maybe he had some sort of long term plan to carry out his… doings… here.”

“I guess."

"Hey," Regina said, holding Emma's gaze, "We made progress. It's something. We're one step closer."

"You're right," Emma agreed.

* * *

Emma was heading upstairs to get ready for bed when she heard soft cries coming from the bathroom. Regina was taking a bath and it made sense that she’d process through her emotions now that she had a moment alone but Emma still found it difficult to ignore. When she let out one particularly loud sob, Emma found herself slumping to the floor just outside the door, her own eyes now glistening with moisture.

She stayed there for what must have been just ten more minutes or so, but felt like longer, crying silently alongside the unaware brunette, before she finally wracked up the nerve to knock gently on the door.

“What?” Regina asked with a badly-concealed sniffle.

Emma wondered if she would have snapped at her had it not been for the loss of the queen, the ‘what’ came out far more gently than she’d expected it to.

“Are you okay?” Emma instantly berated herself for asking such a stupid question, she was about to correct herself when Regina replied.

“No. I’m not.”

She heard a splash of water signalling Regina’s emergence from the bath tub then, and quickly stood up so as not to get hit by the door when it swung open. When Regina finally did come out, naked if not for the white towel tied around her glistening body, they looked at one another with emotionally-loaded expressions for exactly a count of three before Regina stepped forward and wrapped her damp arms tightly around the blonde.

After an initial moment of shock at the gesture, Emma tentatively returned the hug, and soon found herself holding on as tightly as she could, Regina’s wet hair clinging to her face as she buried herself in it.

The hug shook Emma to her core. On one hand she was immensely grateful that Regina would choose to seek comfort in her arms, but on the other, the old Regina would never have let Emma know how desperately she needed her. Right now, all this was just a reminder of how broken Regina was. No, not broken, Emma clenched her eyes shut, vulnerable maybe?

“Let’s get out of here,” Emma whispered.

“What?” Regina tensed.

“Let’s go get a hot chocolate at Granny’s. If we stay here, we’ll both spend the evening moping about.”

“It’s late.”

“It’s six o clock, it’s not late. It’s not even that dark out. There’ll be plenty of people around.”

Regina’s body relaxed in agreement.

Once Regina’s hair was blow dried to perfection and she’d pulled on a comfortable outfit - Emma was surprised to learn she even owned a pair of jeans - they headed out to Granny’s in the bug. It was busy, just as Emma had suspected. Both Granny and Ruby had their hands full, serving drinks to customers and they had to wait a while for their hot chocolates.

Not that they minded, because just moments after they’d sat down, a familiar voice called out to them.

“Moms!” Henry said, as he rushed through the door, soon followed by Snow and David. Apparently they’d decided Henry ought to get out tonight, too. Emma suspected he’d been moody since they’d left him there.

His warm arms surrounded Regina as he held her close before greeting Emma in the same way and taking a seat next to his brunette mother at their booth.

As Snow and David joined them, David asked, “Felt like a hot chocolate as well, huh?”

“The perfect comfort food,” Emma agreed.

Just as Emma thought maybe this would still continue to be a perfect distraction for Regina, Snow reached across the table in a very Snow-like fashion and took both of Regina’s hands in hers, “How are you feeling, Regina?”

God, Emma knew her mother only ever meant well, but damn she never could sense when someone would prefer not to talk about something. She was so used to sharing every pain with the people who loved her, so used to their unconditional support, that she would never understand Regina’s mind-set. For the older brunette, a supportive family was still new to her and, clearly, very difficult to get used to.

Instead of showing her annoyance though, as the old Regina might have, Regina simply forced a smile and said, “I’m okay,” before waving Ruby down and ordering an additional three hot chocolates with cinnamon.

“And how have you been handling Henry?” She countered.

Henry nudged her in the side playfully, “Handling me?”

Snow laughed softly, “That was Violet’s job, today.”

“What?” Regina and Emma asked at the same time.

“ _Violet_ has been _handling_ him today?” Regina asked, her face horror-stricken.

Henry closed his eyes in embarrassment as Snow took a moment to think about how she’d phrased that response, “No, mom, she wasn’t _handling_ me, we just played video games all day.”

“With supervision?”

“Not that I need supervision, but yes, grandma sat in the corner all day, watching us.”

“I did not!” Snow exclaimed, “I was knitting a blanket.”

“Sure,” Henry murmured, sharing a knowing look with David.

“I didn’t realize you two were seeing each other again,” Regina said.

“Well neither of us have had a lot of free time lately, but we’re still dating. We never broke up.”

“Good for you, kid,” Emma said.

“But you could have mentioned it,” Regina muttered.

Their hot chocolates arrived soon after that, providing Henry the distraction he needed to change the subject. It was just what Regina needed. Emma watched her knowingly as she started to let go of the stress she’d been harboring since this all began. Her shoulders relaxed, her expression softened, and she laughed like she hadn’t in a very long time.

  
Just before Emma could become completely content though, the door to Granny’s crashed open and a panic-stricken Leroy ran as fast as his little legs could carry him inside.

“SHE’S BACK! SHE’S BACK!”

“Who? Who’s back?” Emma asked, though she already knew the answer. It sat with a dead weight in the center of her stomach, making her heavy in her seat, her hands tingling as all the blood in her body rushed to her head. She knew the moment he entered, before he’d even muttered a word.

Leroy slowly looked to Regina as he said it, his eyes burrowing holes into her head, “The Queen. Her Majesty is back,” he spat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please please please review!


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The ladies find time for a much-needed heart to heart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You may have noticed an absence of Hook in this fic. He gets his first mention in this chapter (only a mention, no appearance) and so I thought I'd give a quick explanation. In this story, Emma and Hook are no longer dating, they didn't stay together after his return from the underworld, and you won't see much if any of him as the story continues.
> 
> TRIGGER WARNING: rape mentions as Emma and Regina discuss the past.

Strolling down Main Street. Head held high, heavy emerald jewels hanging from her neck. A magnificent red dress that clung to her hips and trailed behind her, patterned with diamonds that reflected the light of the street lamps. Her entire being seemed to glow, according to Leroy, ‘like an angel of death, returning from the fiery pits of hell.’ This is how she made herself known. This is how she made her grand entrance.

And then she’d disappeared. Slipped away into the darkness of the night as quickly as a snake disappears into the sand it slides along. Waiting. Emma was sure of it. She was biding her time. They had searched everywhere, with almost the entire town willing to help, and hadn’t found a scent of her trail anywhere.

She’d waited months to return and she wouldn’t have done so without a destructive self-serving plan cleverly laid out, and if Emma thought Regina had been terrified before, it was nothing compared to the quivering shell of a person she’d become now.

The brunette had coerced Emma into returning to her vault with her, where Emma now sat with her head heavily in her hands while Regina paced the floor, occasionally speaking thoughts out loud.

“Does she want me dead? Does she want you dead? Or is it Snow? Or all of us? Probably all of us.”

Emma had long since stopped trying to respond after realising Regina wasn’t paying her any attention.

“ _Can_ she kill me? Hyde never killed Jekyll. Was that because he wasn’t able to? Will she die if I die? Will I die if she dies?”

Emma groaned into her hands. _Why, why, why, why, why, WHY NOW?_

“And why hasn’t she announced her intentions? I never make entrances without speeches.”

Regina spun on the spot again and grimaced.

“She must be trying to unnerve us.”

“Well, it worked,” Emma grumbled. “And now we have two problems.”

“Do you think she’s more dangerous than I was?”

“She’s you without your good side so, yeah, probably.”

“Do you think she’s more powerful than- that- that guy?”

Emma looked up at that, “Maybe,” she whispered, feeling suddenly optimistic, “Maybe we can manipulate them into working against each other instead of us.”

“I don’t know about that. The Queen already has a clear goal laid out, she’d unlikely to alter her plans. If anything, she’s more likely to use him to do her own bidding.”

Emma sighed in reluctant agreement, “We should see Gold in the morning.”

“Good idea. If anyone knows how to finally defeat the Queen, it’ll be him.”

“That’s not what I meant,” Emma said, cautiously.

“Well, why then?”

“The Queen is still alive, Regina.”

“Funnily enough, Emma, I am aware of that.”

“No, I mean she’s _alive_ ,” Emma repeated.

“I have no idea where you’re going with this.”

“I told you I’d find a way to help you feel whole, again, didn’t I?”

Regina stared at her blankly.

“Since the Queen left, you haven’t been feeling right. You haven’t been yourself. We realised it was a stupidly bad, impulsive decision to separate you. And now she’s back.”

“You think we could find a way to make us one person again?”

“Well, something tells me it’ll be easier to do with the Queen alive than dead.”

Regina didn’t respond to that. Instead she stared at Emma, thoughtfully, for a moment, a thousand different thoughts racing through her head. Then, suddenly realised how much her legs ached from all the running around and subsequent pacing, she let her shoulders slump a bit and took a seat next to Emma. After a little while of silence, she surprised herself by leaning into the blonde and resting her head on Emma’s shoulder.

Emma shivered a little at Regina’s touch and felt goosebumps racing up the back of her neck. It felt nice to be this close. They’d began to lean on each other a lot more often. Now, even literally. She trailed her fingers up Regina’s back and found herself twirling the ends of her raven hair.

“Thank you, Emma.”

“For what?”

“I don’t know. This. Everything. For being here even when I pushed you away. I honestly don’t know how I’d be coping without you.”

A smile slowly spread across Emma’s face at her words, “You’d have done the same for me,” she said, without a doubt in her mind.

“Emma...” Regina said, before trailing off with uncertainty, “I- I...”

Emma waited patiently a moment for her to continue, but the brunette seemed completely lost for words.

“You what?”

Another pause, but Emma didn’t push anymore, she just continued to twirl the ends of Regina’s hair, letting her know she was listening.

“I wanted to ask you something, but I may be... out of line, and you don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.”

“Ask me anything,” Emma said, and Regina knew then that she could, without fear of overstepping any boundaries. Both of their walls had been down for a long time now, before she’d even realised it was happening.

“You knew exactly what to say,” Regina said, “you knew when to step back and when not to. You knew how to comfort me after... You just seemed to do it intuitively.”

Suddenly, Emma knew exactly what Regina wanted to ask and, although she stiffened a little before she could help it, she knew she’d be able to tell Regina the truth. It shocked her, she didn’t think she’d ever be able to tell anyone. She relaxed a little.

“Is that because you knew what I was going through? I mean... really knew.”

Emma nodded against her, a few small tears welling in her eyes already, “I knew.”

Regina didn’t push, just remained where she was, rested against Emma’s neck, patiently waiting for the blonde to find the words she was looking for.

“I was young. A kid, still. You know I spent a lot of time bouncing between different foster homes.”

“Hmm.”

“One of those homes... The father didn’t want to foster for the sake of fostering. I quickly found out how he used us. All of us. Even his own kids.”

“I’m sorry,” Regina said quietly, taking one of Emma’s hands tightly in her own.

“It was frequent. The worst years of my life and at the time, it killed me,” she stopped to wipe a tear from her cheek, “God, I never thought I’d say that out loud.”

“You’ve never told anyone? Snow and Charming? Hook?”

Emma couldn’t stop scoffing a little at that last name, “Hook? Can you imagine having a conversation like that with him?”

Regina let herself chuckle a little despite the subject matter, “No, I suppose not.”

“I could never tell my parents. It would hurt them too much and it was a long time ago. I’ve already come to terms with it. I think telling them would hurt me, too. Open up a box I spent a long time sealing shut. I doubt they’d have any understanding of how to deal with it.”

“Did anyone ever find out about him?”

“Only years later. He’s rotting in a jail cell somewhere, now. Hopefully for the rest of his life. It’s funny, I’d waited for that day for so long, but when it came, I couldn’t even testify. I knew he was going to go down either way. Each of his kids stepped forward, as well as a bunch of foster kids. They questioned me, and I’m sure they suspected, but I denied it. It was partly because I felt guilty for not saying something sooner and stopping him before he could hurt anyone else, and partly because I was ashamed, I guess. I didn’t want to think about it, I wanted to forget it.”

“I don’t know if that’s possible,” Regina murmured.

“It isn’t,” Emma laughed lightly, a few more tears falling onto her lap, “I know that now. I’ve carried that shame everywhere since. But you know what? I’ve also carried around an awful lot more strength than I would have otherwise. It made me stronger, and I knew that if it ever happened to me again, or to anyone I love-” she paused to squeeze Regina’s hand gently, “they’d get what was coming to them.”

“I don’t doubt it,” Regina stated as she squeezed back, “You were so young. It’s odd, we hear of these things happening to people all the time, we know they often feel ashamed and at fault for what happened and we know it’s not true. We know the only guilty one is the abuser. But even when we’re doing our best to explain that to victims, the shame of our own experiences floats about our minds like a dark cloud. Why is it so difficult to believe it about ourselves?”

“It happened to you a long time ago, as well, didn’t it?” Emma found herself asking before she could stop herself, “Leopold.”

Regina took a deep breath, “If you were a woman, living in the equivalent to medieval times in the Enchanted Forest, it wasn’t unlikely. Particularly if a forced marriage was involved.”

“Does Snow know?”

“Your mother is infuriatingly blind to anything she doesn’t want to see. It’s how she and Charming remain so hopeful all of the time. Not to mention, Leopold was very good at hiding his handy work. The only outfits I owned that showed any skin were reserved for him only.”

“You were married to him for years.”

Regina hummed in response.

“I’m glad you had him killed.”

“It’s one of the few deaths I don’t regret. The only sadness I feel is for Snow. She didn’t deserve to lose a father.”

“True. But it’s also true that men like him don’t deserve daughters.”

“I can’t argue with that.”

“So you know what all this means?”

“What?”

“Two men who hurt us before got exactly what they deserved and the two of us are more determined than anyone else could guess."

Regina looked up at her, seeing, and fully understanding for the first time, the anger and the hurt that powered Emma's motivation.

"The disgusting creep who hurt you the other week has _no idea_ what’s coming to him.”


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay with this one! I've had a hectic few weeks but should have a lot more free time to focus on this now :)
> 
> Big WARNINGS for this chapter. Aftermath of violence and sexual violence.

They’d almost brought Henry back home with them last night. Emma was worried the Queen would make an appearance, but if there was one thing Regina was absolutely sure of about her other half, it was that she would never harm their son. She’d loved him as fiercely before she changed as she did now and she was certain that no part of her, no matter how twisted could ever hurt him in any way. They had, however, stopped by at the loft to cast a protection spell that even they couldn’t break without the others help.

Snow and Charming had remained their infuriatingly optimistic selves. Sure that, as they’d done once before, they would beat the Queen again. Regina hadn’t reminded them just yet that this was not the Queen they once knew. This one lacked the suppressed but very present amount of goodness that the original Queen had possessed.

When Regina woke the next morning - her mind already worrying about their plan to meet with Gold and pondering how she would cope if a reunion with her other half was possible - she was surprised to see the guest bed was empty. Since that first day, Regina had been the first one up every morning, and usually by more than a couple hours. Emma would normally join her for breakfast at around eleven, still clothed in whatever she’d slept in, hair like a birds nest and eyes half-shut. So Regina couldn’t help the worry that bubbled within her as she made her way downstairs.

She’d been right to think something was wrong, but was grateful to see that Emma was at least physically fine. The blonde was pacing almost as much as she had been last night, her cell phone pressed close to her ear, worry lines marring her face. When she spotted Regina in the doorway, she threw her a look of absolute exhaustion.

“Okay, mom, sure. We will. I promise. You too. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. See you later,” she said before hanging up the phone, the entire time holding Regina’s gaze.

“What happened? Are they alright?”

“They’re fine. My mom’s just shaken. The Queen paid her a visit last night.”

Regina’s eyes grew wide, “Is she okay? Is she hurt? Is Henry-“

“They’re all fine. She just… I don’t know.. intimidated her. And she took her out of the apartment to do it. Henry didn’t even see her.”

“She waltzed straight through that protection spell. Damn it, of course she did. She’s my stronger half. She’s stronger than the two of us put together. Gods, this is so useless! How can we stand up to her?”

“We use our brains and we work together. That’s one thing we can do that she can’t. She’s alone. We’ll be fine, don’t stress.”

“Don’t stress? Easy for you to say, you were lucky enough to miss my first reign of terror.”

Emma threw her a wry look.

“Okay, you may have gotten… caught up in it, but you missed the worst parts. You missed the…. slaughtering of entire villages. Count yourself lucky,” though her words made light of the situation, Regina’s expression gave away something heavier lurking inside of her, the feeling that this was all a nightmare she couldn’t wake from.

“So what did the Queen say to her?” the brunette asked.

“Something about how she’s going to win and we’re going to lose and blah blah blah, do you want pancakes? I feel like pancakes.”

“Could you focus for five minutes?”

“Could you not? My brain needs a break to-“ before she could finish her sentence, a ringtone sounded from the phone in her hand. After muttering a number of expletives, that Regina raised her eyebrows at, she answered the call with a frustrated, “Yeah?”

Her eyes widened and after a quick, panicked look in Regina’s direction, she headed into the hallway to grab her jacket.

“What is it?” Regina asked, “What happened?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m heading there now,” Emma said into the phone before hanging up and looking at the curious brunette, “It’s nothing. Just a… minor disturbance, I’ve got to check out. Still the town sheriff,” she said with a shrug that didn’t look at all nonchalant.

“Emma,” Regina said, in a tone that made Emma shiver just a little, “what happened?”

“I promise you it’s not important.”

“Not important, my ass.”

Emma gasped, jokingly, “Madam Mayor!”

“Cut the crap, Emma, what happened?”

Emma sighed heavily and said, “You remember that couple we spoke to? Rebecca and Adam?”

Regina nodded slowly, not liking where this appeared to be going.

“Their neighbors called in earlier this morning. Said they’d heard loud noises last night but didn’t think anything of it till this morning when they wouldn’t answer the door. Apparently they’re all close and seeing as they can’t get ahold of them… they’re worried something might have-“

“They’re worried he got to them.”

“‘Regina, it could be anything. Maybe they had an argument and both went back to their parents. Who knows. They’re young and volatile. We shouldn’t assume the worst.”

Regina shot her a look that said she read right though Emma’s fake calm exterior and grabbed her coat.

“Woah, woah, what are you doing? You can’t come.”

“Oh, I can’t? And just who is going to stop me, Sheriff?” she said, before leading the way out of the front door.

Emma swore under her breath and quickly followed her out before she had the chance to drive off without her.

It was a short drive, but the silence in the car made it feel a lot longer. Emma nervously tapped her fingers against the steering wheel the entire time and Regina didn’t look away from her window, once. It was a nice street, filled with houses on the small-side, with perfectly mowed lawns and the occasional rose garden. But something felt off about it. There was an air of stillness, which gave Emma a heavy feeling of dread in the pit of her stomach.

Emma looked out for number twelve, pulled over on the side of the road and found herself jogging towards the house, Regina following closely behind. She knocked first, but as expected, there was no answer. She glanced at Regina briefly, who nodded and said, “We’ve got to be sure.”

She grabbed the brunettes hand, squeezing reassuringly, before surrounding them both in a cloud of white smoke and reappearing on the other side of the couple’s front door.

Emma heard Regina’s gasp and almost didn’t want to open her eyes. She did so cautiously, and they widened at what she saw. The room was trashed. In the center, a glass coffee table was now just a frame surrounded by splintered glass, the plant pot that had sat atop it now shattered, spilling soil over the floor. A number of chairs had been overturned and one lay across the room from the table, as though it had been tossed there. Footprints of dirt tracked through the hallway, leading to the ajar door at the end of the room.

“Wait here,” Emma ordered, knowing full well that the brunette would not heed her request anyway, before cautiously following the footsteps.

There was no way she could have prepared herself for what lay beyond the door. Adam’s body lay at one end, his head resting at an angle that suggested his neck had been broken. His eyes were unseeing, but open, and locked on the only other figure in the room.

Rebecca’s body, clothed only in a pair of socks, was slumped against the bottom of the wall, her head hanging forward, but unlike Adam, her neck didn’t appear to be broken. Emma took a couple of slow steps towards her, her blood pumping so fiercely that her own neck throbbed with each pulse. Rebecca didn’t look like Adam. Her skin was different and as Emma neared, she realized exactly how it differed. She was almost translucent, if not for a tinge of blue.

Emma gently brushed back the dead girl’s hair to reveal what she somehow already knew she’d find. The side of Rebecca’s neck was tarnished by two puncture marks. Her blood had been drained and Emma finally understood exactly what kind of creature they were dealing with here.

The little whimper that sounded behind her signaled that, as she’d suspected, Regina had followed her anyway. The brunette stared at the scene, face ashen and mouth agape as she took it in, but Emma’s eyes were drawn to the small piece of paper crumpled in Regina’s tight fist.

“He left a note,” she explained quietly, voice trembling with fear, as she opened her palm for Emma to see for herself.

_I suppose that there’s little point in remaining subtle, anymore._  
_I’ll see you soon. I don’t like to leave meals unfinished._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please review!


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Angst. Be warned. Also this chapter marks a significant moment in Emma and Regina's relationship, or, more-so, Emma's awareness of it. Enjoy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait! Bit of a longer chapter than usual to make up for that :) prepare yourselves for the angst.
> 
> As with the rest of this chapter, mind the warnings. Nothing graphic but mentions of rape. 
> 
> Please review as always, they keep me going.

Emma wasn’t about to take a threat to Regina, of any kind, lightly. Particularly not one of the nature left in that note. Their first stop after the eternity that was dealing with the crime scene was Gold’s Pawn Shop. He wasn’t in the best mood; a side effect of dealing with a very pregnant wife, who (rightly so, in Emma’s opinion) wanted nothing to do with him, but he surprised her with the genuine concern he showed for Regina. He’d apparently been keeping tabs on the vampire himself and warned them to be more vigilant than ever before. He seemed to know more than he was letting on about the murderous scum, but Emma’s further questions fell flat and they gratefully accepted what he did offer, a protection spell that would veil both of their scents. Gold explained that, much like a werewolf, the vampire had had the ability to sniff out any chosen victim this entire time. He even offered his cabin for them to reside in the meantime, promising to kick out the current residents early the next morning, incase the vampire was already aware of their usual addresses.

His final warning to them, “Remember, Van Drake may be the only being older than myself, and he’s managed to evade threats to his person for all of that time,” revealed a name at last.

A couple hours later, they were both nose deep in twenty different history books at the library, each book elaborating on what they already knew. Sunlight weakened him, which is what Hyde was referring to when he reminded them of how easily Henry seemed to beat him to a pulp during that sunny morning; during the night, the moonlight fed his strength.  
He had the ability to transform into a bat, which is how he escaped through the slot in the door during his day at the asylum, but the books also stated that it was natural for vampires to remain in bat form from dawn until dusk as protection from the sunlight problem.

“So what the hell was he doing wondering around out in the open, the day we picked you up from the hospital?”

“We knew nothing about him then. It was likely all part of remaining inconspicuous. Ironic, given how that worked out for him.”

“I don’t know... The timing was weird. It was almost like he was gloating.”

“And his ego was his downfall,” Regina added.

Emma allowed herself a small chuckle, despite the circumstances, “Suddenly, now that we know what he’s capable of, it’s even more satisfying to know that Henry beat the shit out of him.”

 

* * *

 

**The Loft**

They’d spent the evening together. All of them. Emma and Regina had told them the news, of course, and they’d all felt the dense weight settling in over them. Two people were dead and, though they barely knew them, it was painful all the same.

Just as the silence and wondering thoughts set in, Henry had suggested a game of cards for a moment of distraction. Then Snow had baked trays and trays of chocolate chip cookies and then they’d all sat around the table, playing cards and eating until they’d all felt sick. Henry had updated them on every detail of his life during the past few days, though only after the incessant prying done by both of his mothers, and again, Regina was reminded of the things that keep her going during the hardest trials of life. She knew that, as long as she had these people, as long as even just one of them continued to give her their undying support, she would be okay.

As the hours passed though, she realised that her mind was still stirring uncomfortably. That, as incredible as these people - her family - were, she still needed to think things through. To set her mind straight. The past week, hell the past few years, still felt like a dream, nightmare more-like, she was yet to wake from. So she soon found herself glancing to the door, her feet itching to move.

Emma noticed before she’d even made a move to stand up.

“What’re you thinking?” Emma asked.

“I think I’m going to get some air,” she said as she rose to her feet, then, before Emma could reach for her jacket, she added, “I need a moment to think by myself.”

“Oh,” Emma said, hurt evident in her eyes.

The look on the blonde’s face tugged at Regina’s heart and she paused on her way to the door, “Emma, you’ve been my rock, really, you all have,” she said, glancing around, “but I’ve got a lot going on in my brain right now, and a walk in the fresh air with some time to think is just what I need.”

“Where are you going to go?”

“I won’t go far, I promise,” when Emma still looked unsure, she said, “He can’t track me, Emma. Gold made sure of that. I’ll be fine.”

She wasn’t happy about it, but she knew Regina was right. He wouldn’t be able to track her now. If anything, he would be more likely to come to the Loft looking for her tonight than to find her in the middle of town. She couldn’t wait to get to the cabin in the morning.

She nodded in reluctant agreement, “Go ahead, I don’t want to smother you.”

“Thank you,” Regina said, before stepping forward to give Emma a kiss on the cheek and leaving quietly, the four of them staring after her.

 

* * *

 

**Elsewhere in Storybrooke**

It was almost too easy, Van Drake thought. Her scent was overpowering, flooding his senses and sending his blood rushing south. Her bravery enticed him further, to think she would take a late-night stroll around a graveyard, of all places, when she knew he was out for her blood.

He found a spot behind a particularly large gravestone to bide his time, twirling his fingers in the grass and wondering how her hair would feel wrapped around his fingers or entrapped in his fist. He longed to hear her whimper again, the sound etched in his memory as if written on stone left him craving for more.

This was sure to be the tastiest and most satisfying meal he’d have in hundreds of years. It wasn’t often that he came across a magical user as strong as the ex-Queen herself that he was sure he could subdue. That kind of magic was better than the strongest drug.

He was curious about the trauma she must have faced to lose control of it like this. He hadn’t been too sure when he’d first approached her for a teasing taste, but the drugs he’d used to test the waters were certainly not responsible for the withering mess she had become. They hadn’t even fully set in when she’d started trying to get away from him and she hadn’t drawn forth any magic or caused him any trouble whatsoever. Her struggles against him had been futile.

Watching her carefully now, he wondered what she was doing here. No longer wandering about, she seemed to have come to a stop in front of a tomb, eyeing it up as if planning something. What did the tomb hold? She had to store her potions somewhere and perhaps this was the place. He worried briefly that maybe she was here to work on her dark magic, to produce some kind of healing potion for herself or a dark potion for him. But why wasn’t she entering, if that were the case?

He decided he had waited long enough. Rising from behind the grave, a predator closed in on his prey, he stalked towards her.

“I’ve been looking for you, Madame Mayor.”

 

* * *

 

**The Loft**

“You okay, Ma?” Henry asked, but Emma didn’t respond. He exchanged a worried glance with Snow before asking again, “Ma?”

“Hmm? What?” Emma asked as she woke from her daze, looking up to see everyone staring at her.

“Henry asked if you were okay,” David repeated.

“I’m- I’m fine, it’s just that Regina’s been gone a while now.”

“If you’re worried, call her,” Snow suggested.

“Sure, good idea,” Emma agreed, thinking herself stupid for waiting this long. Regina had been gone for over half an hour now and she had only resisted calling so far to avoid smothering her, but wouldn’t Regina rather be a little more smothered than dead?

She dialed Regina’s number quickly and listened to it ring approximately seven times before she heard Regina’s voice, “Hello-”

“Regina, sorry, I was-”

“-this is Regina Mills, I can’t come to the phone right now, but please leave your message after the beep.”

“Fuck,” Emma muttered.

“She didn’t answer?”

“Voicemail.”

David approached and put a hand on her shoulder, sensing her rising panic, “She probably either left it on silent or didn’t hear it ring, but we can go take a look for her just in case, if you want.”

“Just check her location, ma,” Henry said, “I got her to share it indefinitely, it should still be there.”

“I totally forgot,” Emma said with a burst of relief as she frantically punched the buttons on her phone.

When her face dropped, Henry sat up worriedly, “What is it?”

“It’s not working. Why isn’t it working?”

“Maybe her phone died or-”

“But it rang - do phones still ring when they’re dead?”

“I- I’m not sure,” Henry stammered, standing up as he began to panic with her.

“Let’s go,” Emma said to David. When Henry grabbed his bag she said, “Not you.”

“Mom-” he started angrily.

“We’ll wait here in case she comes back, first,” Snow said, gesturing to Henry and herself.

“Thanks, mom,” Emma said, before attempting to throw a reassuring smile Henry’s way. “I’ll call you as soon as I find her, okay? But if... if something’s ha-” she paused, taking a few deep breaths, “When we find her... she’ll be mad if you’re there too, okay? Just stay here. I need to know that you’re safe.”

Henry frowned at her attempt to calm him, but forced his shaking legs to sit back down on the edge of the couch stiffly, “I’ll keep calling,” he said.

The moment Emma stood up, all the nervous energy she’d been containing in a tapping foot and clenched fingers rushed through her and she walked quickly and unsteadily to the door, David close behind.

“I shouldn’t have let her go out on her own,” Emma muttered the moment it was shut behind her, “So fucking stupid.”

“As much as you’d like to, Emma, you can’t watch over her 24/7.”

“But I can, dad!” Emma yelled suddenly, “I can and I should. There’s a psycho, rapist, murdering vampire on the loose and he’s got his eyes set on Regina. I shouldn’t have left her alone for one second!”

David tried to reach for her but she shrugged him off and took the stairs two at a time, forcing him to chase after her.

“Where would she go? Where the fuck would she go?”

“Alright, breathe. You can’t think straight if you get yourself worked up like this.”

“Why do I feel as though I’m getting déjà vu? Why do I keep losing her?” She choked the last question on a sob caught in her throat.

David said nothing, understanding her frustration and following dutifully behind her, eyes peeled, though it would be easy to miss someone now that the sun had gone down.

“It’s all we ever do. Lose each other. Over and over and over again. Whether it’s a fight between us or the darkness or... Just me being a blind idiot and not seeing what’s been right in front of me this whole time.”

David looked at her, curiously, suddenly realising that maybe her relationship with the Mayor went deeper than he’d known, “Hey,” he took her shoulders in his hands, “what’s the family motto?”

“We- we always find each other.”

“Right. Without fail,” David stated, “Think, where would she walk to?”

“Last time, she went to the stables. She wouldn’t go there at this time, though. Maybe she walked towards hers? Or the vault?”

“Her place is too far to walk to from here. The vault, maybe. Let’s head there first.”

Emma took off on a jog, not bothering to pace herself. The town seemed quieter than usual, even for this late in the evenin. Every turn she took that revealed yet another empty street sent shivers down her spine, goosebumps racing up her arms.

 _If something happens now, it’s my fault,_ Emma thought, _It’s on me._

“What if he’s taken her somewhere?” Emma asked hysterically, “What if he’s hurting her, right now?”

“Nothing points to that-”

“Yet. Nothing points to that, yet.”

“Yet,” David agreed, “While it’s still ‘yet’, you need to hold it together. We all do. That’s how we find her.”

She nodded and wiped at her nose with her sleeve.

They reached the graveyard quickly, though it still felt too long for Emma’s liking. This whole ordeal felt like eternity to her. She ran through the gates and headed to the vault, though the silence in the air told her it was useless.

“She’s not here,” she stated as they reached it.

“What if she’s inside?”

Emma reached towards the door and felt the familiar tingle of a protection spell.

“Regina?!” She yelled as she banged her fist against the wood, ignoring the sharp pain of the magic against her fist that sent sparks flying, “She’s not in there. I know she’s not.”

“Okay, trust your instincts, where to next?”

Emma clenched her eyes tightly shut. The truth was, Regina could be anywhere by now. She was suddenly sure that the brunette didn’t have a particular place in mind this night. She wanted to wander around town to clear her mind, aimlessly, without a clue herself as to where she was going. Probably completely oblivious to her surroundings.

“Let’s head towards the town centre,” she said.

“Emma-”

“She might have headed towards more street lights-”

“Emma-”

“What?”

“Emma, your phone.”

“What?”

“Your phone, it’s lit up, who’s calling?”

Emma dropped her phone in her haste to turn it around in her hands and crouched to the ground to see Henry’s name on the screen, she answered and held it painfully close to her ear, “Kid? Did she call?”

“Emma-”

“Regina, thank God,” Emma felt her eyes roll to the back of her head in relief and she found herself clutching to her chest until she could feel the heartbeat through her jacket, “What happened? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. I’m sorry I missed your call, my phone was on silent. Henry had a look at it and apparently I pressed the wrong button when I shared my location with you, it only lasted a day, I’m sorry-”

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” Emma breathed, “It’s okay. I’m just- I’m glad you’re safe. We’ll head back.”

David engulfed Emma’s entire being in a mammoth hug as she hung up the phone and she found herself holding him just as tightly, breathing deeply as he kissed her on the forehead.

“It’s going to be okay,” he said as he held her, “We’ll make sure of it.”

Emma nodded against him as he released her, keeping one arm around her shoulders as they started to walk back to the apartment.

“Emma,” he said, “Make sure you tell her.”

She looked up then and wondered what exactly he meant and she realised, when she locked eyes with him, that she already knew. And so did he.

 

* * *

 

**Later that night ~ Henry’s Bedroom**

“Mom?” He asked, eyes still sticky with sleep.

“Henry.”

This was not his mother. Henry’s eyes shot open and he sat up straight, “What are you doing here?”

“I wanted to see you.”

Henry reached for his lamp, flooding the room with light that made him squint.

“What happened to your face?” He asked, worry flushing through him at the sight of the blood on her cheek. He found himself rushing out of bed to approach her.

She didn’t appear to have heard him, her eyes focusing on his knuckles which were still bruised.

“He mentioned you, Henry. Did he hurt you?”

“Huh?” He asked, confused.

She reached for his hands, taking them in her own, and gently ran her fingers over them. He gasped as he felt a tickle, but nothing seemed to happen.

The Queen grunted in frustration, “I can’t heal them, I’m lacking my light magic, why has no one done this for you, yet?”

“I told them not to worry. They’re only bruises,” he said, before adding quietly, “I’m proud of them.”

“Are you hurt anywhere else?”

“No, I won by a landslide.”

The Queen took his face in her hands, looking at him with a mixture of concern and pride, “My brave boy.”

Henry wasn’t listening though, now that he had a better look at her face, he frowned and asked angrily, “Is that a bite mark?”

“He appears to have confused me with your other mother.”

“And he... bit you?”

The Queen shrugged her shoulders in response.

“How did you get away?”

“Magic.”

“He’s strong. Really strong. Did you fight him? Is he dead?”

“Not yet, dear. I merely escaped his hold and transported myself somewhere safe, the first place that came to mind,” she said, wistfully, as she gazed about his room.

“What are you doing here? Do you want to hurt grandma? I know you scared her the other day.”

“Always so easily spooked,” the Queen said, turning away and laughing quietly to herself.

Henry crinkled his nose at her response, “I said, do you want to hurt her?”

“All I want, Henry,” she said as she approached him, taking his face in her hands once again, “is the justice that I deserve.”

Henry remained silent, glaring at her instead in the hope that she could see just how well this sat with him.

“Your... other... mother forgave her, Henry. And look where that left her. Not too long ago, she _ripped_ herself apart and tried to kill me in some strange act of _suicide_. And you know what else?” She lifted his chin with her finger, “Snow White, along with those other peasants, cheered her on. Congratulated her even! Someone needs to remind my other half just what she means to these people. Absolutely nothing.”

“They supported her because the darkness inside you was hurting her-”

“You mean the darkness inside her. Inside us. We might hold separate bodies now, Henry, but make no mistake. We are two parts of one. You can’t just pick and choose what you like about yourself. It’s a package deal. And trust me, without my darkness, we would have been history a long time ago.”

“What do you mean?”

“Despite the lies you’ve been fed, our darkness did make us stronger. There’s only so much pain a person can take, Henry. When the time comes, one is left with two choices. Give up or fight.”

Henry was silent as he contemplated what she’d said. There was a depth to her words that he didn’t think he’d ever be able to understand; sometimes he forgot quite how old his mother really was, all the experiences she had lived before him.

“Henry,” the Queen said, capturing his attention once again, “do you know what that creature wanted? What did your mother do to him?”

Henry bit his lip, unsure of what to say. It was clear that the Queen’s intentions weren’t all good, but she still appeared to be on his mother’s side, in some strange way, at the very least. Still, he couldn’t take the risk that any information he gave her could be used against them.

“Clearly, he’s out for her blood, and unfortunately for me, I believe that counts for the both of us. I need to be sure that I can protect myself from him.”

Henry stirred at that, watching as the Queen moved to sit on the edge of his bed.

He took a seat next to her and said, “But... you escaped him today. You can... you can just poof away if you need to. You don’t need me to tell you anything.”

“I was lucky today,” she said, and Henry looked up at her to see genuine worry in her glistening eyes, “He’s fast. He’s stronger than anything I’ve ever encountered before, and believe me,” she laughed dryly, “that’s saying something. He seemed surprised by my use of magic, which is likely what allowed me to escape. If he tries again, he’s going to be better prepared.”

“I-I don’t think I can help. I don’t know much about him. He’s-” he paused, unsure of whether to go on, but when he looked into the Queen’s eyes and saw his mother’s the words tumbled out anyway, “He’s a vampire. He attacked mom before, but she got away. And now he wants to finish what he started.”

The Queen nodded her understanding slowly before taking Henry’s hand in her own and holding it tight, “Trust me,” she said, her eyes shining with menace he hadn’t seen in years, “He won’t get that chance.”

Then she leaned forward, placed a gentle kiss on his forehead and disappeared in a cloud of purple smoke.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please review!


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this isn't perfect but if I didn't get it out I'd have stalled for another couple of weeks! So here you go!

It didn’t take long for the stress to take it’s toll on everybody the next morning. Henry had been careful whilst recounting the previous night’s events, painfully aware of his conflicting instinct to protect every version of his mother, no matter what the state of her heart.

Their minds about her had been made up though, the Evil Queen was trouble. Snow had described, in incredible, dramatic and - most likely - exaggerated detail, what the Queen had said to her the night before; how she had prowled around her in a circle, like a cat toying with it’s prey, and told her, in no uncertain terms, that she would destroy her, break apart their ‘little family,’ because Snow may have forgiven Regina but Snow had in no way earned forgiveness herself from the Queen.

“For crying out loud, she was hurt!” Henry yelled over everyone’s voices when no one showed any signs of quieting down after ten excruciating minutes of yelling, “And she couldn’t heal herself. She has no light magic. The vampire has her just as shaken up as mom, any plans she had are going to have to wait. Van Drake is still the biggest problem, here. For all of us. We should be helping each other.”

“Henry, sweetie,” Regina says, moving closer to look at him properly, “I know the Queen, I know her better than anybody. She won’t work with us. Not while she’s focused on vengeance. If anything, she’ll find a way to use him to her advantage.”

“She can’t. She knows he’s hunting you both,” Henry pleaded with her to understand, “She’s protective of you, mom. She might have it out for grandma and grandpa, but she’s on your side. She won’t let him hurt you.”

“I’m not sure she’d be capable of stopping him even if she tried, kid,” Emma stated.

“No, but the three of you together might stand a chance.”

Regina looked at him fondly, she hoped he’d never lose his almost child-like ability to see the best in people, but at the same time she worried that it would put him in harms way someday, “If the Queen asks for our help or our protection against him, we’ll give it. You know we will, but right now, it’s too dangerous to approach her. She’s manipulative, sly, she doesn’t say anything without a reason, we have to be aware of that,” she said, carefully, “and although I don’t believe that any version of myself is capable of hurting you, Henry, I wouldn’t put it past her to destroy all of us and take you away with her, so I need you to be cautious. If she approaches you again, find us, call one of us, okay? Don’t assume that you’re safe with her.”

“She’s my mom, too.”

“She’s evil, Henry,” Regina said, firmly, “and she’s selfish. She wants your approval, but your love for all of us is something she’ll see as a weakness that needs to be corrected.”

Henry almost growled in frustration, before turning on his heel and storming off to his room upstairs. It wasn’t quite so dramatic without a door to slam, but his point was made.

Emma turned to Regina as he walked away, “You think she’d do that? Take him?”

“I honestly don’t know. That’s what worries me,” Regina muttered, “I’m just trying to go into this with my eyes open.”

“Maybe we should speak to Dr Jekyll,” Mary-Margaret suggested, “we need to understand more about how this works, why she’s still alive.”

“Jekyll created the potion in the first place. If there’s a... well, a cure, a way to reverse it, he’ll be the most capable of creating it,” David added.

Emma nodded, “You’re right, let’s go.”

“We’ll go. You two should get over to the cabin as soon as possible. It’s not safe for you to be here,” Mary-Margaret said.

“Okay,” she nodded again, “take Henry with you, I don’t want him left alone with the Queen on the loose.”

* * *

 

After everyone else was gone, Emma used her powers to poof just about everything they’d packed into Regina’s Mercedes, figuring some magic practice couldn’t hurt. The bug couldn’t have held all of their stuff (which was mostly Regina’s fault, and what she needed all those outfits for, Emma couldn’t even guess), Regina also made the point that if they needed to make a fast getaway for whatever reason, the Mercedes would give them a better chance, though Emma suspected that she just wanted to be behind the wheel for once.

They drove to the cabin in relative silence, both feeling a mixture of relief and annoyance at having to leave at all. Emma was irritated to find, once they’d arrived, that her magic wasn’t quite as honed as she’d hoped. She didn’t know enough about the cabin to easily poof all of their things inside and, when her first attempt left one of her suitcase’s contents littered across the grass, she decided it would be less effort to simply haul everything inside manually.

When they were finally done, the two of them collapsed onto the couch and stared into the empty fireplace for a while.

“How do you suppose we should entertain ourselves out here?” Regina asked.

“I was really hoping Gold would have put a TV in here by now,” Emma grumbled, as she looked around. “I brought a pack of cards we could play later?”

“We can’t play poker with two people.”

“No, but we could play something that you’re not an expert at. Rummy, Go Fish, we could make up a drinking game...”

“A drinking game?” Regina raised her eyebrow in amusement.

“It’s only a suggestion, we’ll see how we’re feeling later tonight. For now, why don’t we go for a walk? Take a look at what there is around here.”

“The lake we drove past looked beautiful,” Regina noted.

“Are you hungry? We could bring some food, have a picnic? My stomach’s receding into my ribcage,” she grumbled.

“You were eating sweets and chocolate the whole way here.”

“Sweets and chocolate are warm-up foods.”

Regina rolled her eyes.

* * *

The air was warm but the refreshing breeze made for a perfect afternoon outside. While Regina had put together sandwiches and packed some fruit into a plastic container, Emma had subtly slipped a couple of bottles of red wine into the picnic bag. She’d snatched them from the loft, figuring that they needed the alcohol more than her parents did and, if Regina didn’t want any, she was sure she could finish them both by herself over the next few days, anyway.

Regina laid out a couple of towels to use as a picnic blanket, as Emma rummaged through the bag for their sandwiches.

“For you, your Majesty,” she said, as she handed over the colourful looking sandwich before tucking into her own, less healthy, ham and cheese version. Regina knew her so well.

“I miss this,” Regina said, as she settled back against the towel and took a bite.

“What?”

“Open space,” she gestured in front of them, “I grew up surrounded by fields like these.”

“Must have been nice,” Emma mused, “all of my homes were downtown. A couple of foster homes were a bit further out but I never made it to fields like these. I think I would have been outdoorsey, if I had. You know, the kind of kid that bikes everywhere, climbs trees, is constantly dirty...”

“That was me,” Regina chuckled.

Emma looked up, surprised, “You? Constantly dirty? I can’t even imagine that.”

“I was quite the tomboy before mother snuffed it out of me. She used to tell me that I rode horses ‘like a man,’” Regina said, “I think that translates as ‘well.’”

They chuckled.

“I bet that came in handy during battle.”

“I was formidable, was I not? Always underestimated because of my gender,” she murmured, looking off into the distance as though she was seeing the past in her mind’s eye. “I suppose if I hadn’t left to marry the King, I might have grown up similarly to Robin.”

“How d’you mean?”

“An outlaw,” she explained, “Never staying in one place for too long, riding through the forest as and when I pleased. Going where the wind took me. Ironically, not unlike the bandit I became in Isaac’s fake world. I think that’s partly what made me fall for him. He was everything that I used to love about myself.”

“That makes sense. A life like that sounds pretty great,” Emma agreed, “imagine that freedom.”

“You hardly have to imagine, Emma. I remember what you were like when you first rode into town. Even you were surprised that you stayed. Storybrooke interrupted your years of freedom.”

“I guess you’re right,” Emma mused, “it didn’t feel like it at the time, though. I think it’s only freedom if you’re enjoying it. I wasn’t just running, I was running from things. Commitment, mostly.”

Silence fell over them for a moment before Regina broke it, “We’ve had quite the rough time up until now, haven’t we?”

“Up until now? I don’t know about you, but I’d say times are still pretty rough.”

Regina chuckled, “Sometimes I feel like we could take on anything, after all we’ve both been through.”

“You’re right about that,” Emma smiled, “we have so far. No reason to stop now.”

They sat out by the lake long after all of the food was gone and, when Emma popped open a bottle of wine, Regina didn’t protest one bit. They drank from the bottle, seeing as Emma had neglected to pack glasses, and before long they could both feel its effects. They moved to sit closer to the lake, removing their shoes and dipping their feet in the water to ward off the hot flushes brought on by alcohol.

They talked until the sun set, about nonsense mostly, but it was nice. It was nice to be away from everything for a while. Regina had a different side to her when she was away from responsibility and not surrounded by too many people. Up until now, Emma had only seen glimpses of it, and she found herself looking forward to a few nights spent away from town with the brunette. The more time she spent with her, the happier she seemed to be. The thought scared her for a moment. She’d been trying to suppress what she felt for the mayor for a while now, at least until all of this craziness was over, but it was getting more difficult with every passing day they spent together.

When the conversation began to die down, Emma suggested that they head back inside, but Regina was having none of it.

“So we can spend the evening in that smelly, little cabin instead of out here in the fresh, open air?” Regina asked, sarcastically, the smell of wine noticeable on her breath now, “No, thank you!”

“Well, I guess we can stay a little longer,” Emma relented, “but only if you promise to carry me home afterwards, because I’m a couple of swigs away from being incacit- incapica- incipa-”

“Incapacitated?”

“How do you still find long words like that in your brain after drinking so much?” Emma asked.

“It’s an acquired skill, dear. A _Queen_ may drink all she pleases, but she must never appear drunk before her royal subjects,” Regina slurred whilst waving at imaginary people around her.

“You might still have your words but you’re not hiding the drunk all that well,” Emma laughed.

“Why don’t we play one of your games?”

“One of my games?”

“One of your drinking games,” Regina clarified, before suddenly sulking and slumping her shoulders in defeat, “We forgot the cards!” she exclaimed, as though it was the end of the world.

“We don’t need cards for all of them.”

Regina’s eyes lit up and for a moment Emma was sure she was looking at the five year-old kid buried within the royal persona.

“Woo!” the mayor cheered. “What can we play?”

“Ever played ‘Never Have I Ever’?”

Regina stared back blankly at her.

“It’s simple, I promise. We take turns to come up with something we’ve never done, so I might say, ‘Never have I ever rode on a whale’s back’-”

“Rode on a whale’s back?” Regina looked at her as though she was stupid.

“Hey, it’s just an example. Listen. So if I say that, and you have rode on a whale’s back, you’d have to drink.”

Regina mulled this information over in her head for a moment before looking up decidedly, “Never have I ever owned an ugly yellow car.”

Emma frowned, “I’m gonna let that one go because you’re a newbie-”

Regina smiled mischievously.

“- but next time, pick something that you can’t be sure of, so it’s fair. And try to refrain from insults,” Emma chuckled as she took a swig from the bottle. “Never have I ever... farted and blamed it on an animal.”

Regina blushed red before drinking, “I’m having a hard time believing you’ve never done that, Emma.”

“Hey, I own up to mine. I have no pride to uphold, that’s how I knew I’d get you.”

“Never have I ever... Smoked weed,” Regina stated.

“Damn,” Emma muttered, taking another mouthful of wine.

As the game went on, Regina began to run out of ideas and Emma’s break from drinking had gone on long enough. She’d had to drink every time for the last ten questions or so and was becoming far more drunk than the blonde.

“Okay, this isn’t fair,” Regina complained, “I’ve lived way longer than you, I’ve done more things.”

“Okay, okay,” Emma laughed, “How about we only count the things we’ve done since I came to Storybrooke. That way we’ll be working with the same time frame.”

Regina smiled in victory, suddenly sure of herself.

Emma hmm’d for a moment before announcing, “Never have I ever, since Storybrooke, slept with a woman.”

The speed with which Regina’s huge grin turned upside down was so comical, Emma fell onto her back laughing before the brunette could even say anything.

“Seriously?” The blonde yelled between laughs, “Who?!”

“Mal and I go way back, my dear.”

“You and a dragon?”

“Well, not when it happened,” Regina slurred, “I wasn’t into being burned every time I gave her an orgasm.”

Emma choked, “You and Mal...” she mused, “I can see it.”

“It was purely physical, nothing more,” Regina clarified, with sudden seriousness.

Emma nodded, “Your turn.”

“Never have I ever...” the brunette paused for a second, thinking something through, before saying, in a low, quiet voice, “kissed my best friend,” her eyes flashed with fear as the words came out of her mouth, before her eyes zeroed in on the blonde’s lips. Her eyelids fluttered for a moment and Emma swore she’d never seen such a sultry look in her life.

Her heart hammered against her chest as she realised that this was a moment. They were having a moment. Regina was leaning into her, ready to claim her lips, but as Emma leaned in as well, to do what they both clearly wanted, what they both desperately wanted, her mouth opened and she unceremoniously word-vomited all over the brunette, “No. Never have I ever jumped into a lake with my clothes on.”

“Huh?”

Before Regina could say another word, Emma found her arms moving of their own volition, grabbing the mayor by her shoulders and pulling her into the lake with her as she threw herself over the edge.

The water was colder than she’d expected, and also far more shallow than it looked. Her feet hit the bottom abruptly and she dropped to her ass at the shock of it, her head submerging beneath the murky water for a moment.

She froze right there, under the water, terrified to re-surface.

 _Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid!_ she berated herself.

Just as she was about to run out of air, small hands grabbed ahold of her shoulders and gently tugged her upwards.

Regina caught her eyes as she pulled her above the surface, her own filled with regret and worry.

“Emma, I-” she stammered, “I’m sorry.”

“For what?” Emma asked, stupidly, and grimaced at herself. Regina was drunk, but not drunk enough to miss what Emma had done. How Emma had reacted.

“I didn’t mean to- to make you uncomfortable. To make you... We’ve both had too much to drink, we should go to bed,” she mumbled.

Everything inside of Emma was screaming at her to refuse, to tell Regina how she felt, how scared she was, but the words wouldn’t come out. She visibly struggled to make her lips move, staring as deeply as she could into Regina’s eyes, trying desperately to make her understand, but eventually all that came out was, “Okay.”

They climbed out of the lake and each wrapped a towel around themselves before trudging back to the cabin in deafening silence. Emma was sure that her face was beetroot-red, her heart was still thudding noisily in her ribcage, her head dizzy with regret and hatred for herself. She wanted to say something, anything, to make this better.

Regina’s features were riddled with shame and, more than anything, Emma wanted to grab the soaking-wet brunette by the waist, spin her in her arms and kiss her. Kiss her hard enough to wipe any uncertainty from her mind.

A small, terrifying thought was bouncing about in the back of her mind, though. What if, for Regina, this really was just the alcohol talking? She’d moved to kiss her right after talking about the ‘purely physical’ relationship she’d had with Maleficent. What if she’d just wanted to repeat what they’d had with a new blonde?

Emma knew, without a doubt, that that wouldn’t be enough for her. Perhaps, this was for the best. The last thing she wanted was to be fuck buddies with Regina Mills. Nothing would be messier and she would never recover. Not from that.

When they returned to the cabin, Emma remembered that there was only one bed. God, how were they supposed to share it now? Hoping that Regina wouldn’t call her out, she moved quickly towards the couch and curled up, still wrapped in her towel, “Night,” she whispered.

“Emma, don’t be ridiculous, the bed is big enough for both of us. I won’t...” Regina trailed off, unsure how to finish her sentence, “It’s fine. Let’s dry off first, though.”

They dried off, pulled on their PJs and crawled into the large bed in silence, both of them rolling to face away from the other, neither closing their eyes, neither sleeping until the early hours of the morning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't panic, things will work out in the end :)  
> The next chapter will be far more action-packed... and the Queen will make another appearance soon. 
> 
> As always, please review, your comments keep me going.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry guys, this was a difficult one to get out even if I hadn't had crazy shit going on at home preventing me from writing. I promise I will finish this, and will always try to update as soon as possible. Hopefully that was the last long break there'll be in a while :)
> 
> Hope you enjoy and please review!

It was a strange sensation waking up to the sound of birds and not much else, Emma was used to the wake up call of a car horn and this was a nice change. Her smile didn’t quite make it to her mouth, however, when she noticed the dull throbbing in her skull. She licked her dry lips and gagged a little at the faint taste of wine that still lingered there.

A groan from the other side of the bed prompted her to open her eyes, at which point she spotted the brunette who looked to be suffering similarly. Regina’s hair was a mess of dark tendrils, but she supposed hers probably didn’t look much better. Regina was one step ahead of her, however, having made it to a sitting position before the hangover pains hit her.

“How much wine did we drink?” Regina grumbled, a hand going to her temple.

“One bottle,” Emma answered, continuing when Regina shot her a confused look, “-that I may or may not have magically refilled a couple times.”

“I’m wet,” the brunette stated, running her hands over her murky, lake-stained outfit.

For half a second, Emma thought she might laugh at the unintended sexual innuendo, but the reason for their damp clothes and bed sheets was not a pleasant one and she was disappointed to find that the tremendous amount of alcohol she’d consumed hadn’t dampened that memory in the slightest.

“Oh, Gods,” Regina muttered, as she, too, let what had taken place dawn on her. “Emma, I don’t want things to be awkward between us, I’m sorry-“

“Don’t apologise,” Emma interrupted her, “Please. I’m the one who messed up.”

Regina stared at her for a moment, unsure of exactly what Emma meant by that statement. She seemed to dismiss the question on her mind for now, though, and instead sighed a low chuckle and met Emma’s gaze with an incredulous look, “You pulled us into a lake.”

“How can you laugh about that? I’m mortified.”

Regina’s chuckle turned into a full laugh, “There was a time I’d have had you executed for that,” she paused a moment, shaking her head a little, “and a time before the Queen when I’d have welcomed it.”

Emma smiled, “Alcohol has a habit of destroying every sensible adult cell in my brain.”

“I didn’t know you had any of those.”

Emma slapped her on the arm, playfully, the pressure of what had happened leaving her in a series of relieved chuckles.

Both of them smiled, eyes lingering on the other in some kind of unspoken understanding, before Regina continued her mission of hauling herself out of the bed.

“How the hell are you able to get up already? I don’t think I could sit up straight without vomiting.”

“Decades of apple cider induced hangover practice.” Regina explained with a wave of her hand, “You’ll feel better if you get up and drink some water.”

As much as Emma tried, she was resigned to her spot in bed until the sweet smell of pancakes frying wafted into the bedroom. She found herself moving effortlessly towards the doorway where she stood, leaning against the frame as she allowed herself to admire the view for a moment before approaching the beautiful brunette and offering her a hand with the toppings.

* * *

 

Things were slow on the news front. Snow and David updated them on Henry’s mood (it wasn’t great, but a short chat with both of his mothers did seem to help a little), but nothing awful had taken place since they’d left, so they were able to enjoy their pancakes in peace at least.

Emma was grateful for Regina’s cooking ability, knowing full-well that if it wasn’t for her, she wouldn’t be eating breakfast at all this morning, and the pancakes and water she’d been made to force down really did seem to lift the worst of her hangover.

They’d chatted effortlessly over their food and Emma found herself wishing that this could be her new normal. This felt like family and home and all things perfect in the world and she desperately wanted to cling to it. Unfortunately, those happy thoughts led her to darker ones about all the things she’d do to be rid of the threats that faced them.

God, she’d do anything to keep this woman safe. Literally. She’d gone through a thousand different scenarios in her head and she couldn’t think of a single thing or person or monster that she wouldn’t fight for Regina.

“Stop it,” Regina said, her voice breaking Emma away from her trail of thought.

“Stop what?”

“Brooding. It’s not a good look on you.”

“Sorry. I can’t help it. We need to fix this before I forget how to enjoy life altogether.”

Regina reached out across the table, taking Emma’s hand in hers, “You need to remember what your father always says. We need to enjoy the moments. Life will always throw things at you. If you don’t enjoy the moments in between, you’ll forget what you’re fighting for.”

“I’ll never forget,” Emma whispered, holding Regina’s gaze with eyes that suddenly felt watery. Regina returned the look, and Emma thought for a moment that she might kiss her. She quickly looked downward, wiped her eyes with her sleeve and said, “Since when do you take my dad’s advice?”

Regina chuckled, “Words of wisdom occasionally slip from the most unlikely of sources.” 

* * *

 

Henry was not happy.

The clock on his wall was ticking extra loudly tonight. It’s hand now reaching the early hours after midnight. He’d been restlessly rolling about on his bed for two hours now, to no avail, sleep eluding him.

All day, he’d wrestled with a heavy feeling of dread mixed with anxiety in the pit of his stomach, and as much as his grandparents and moms had tried to reassure him, he couldn’t help but feel that this wasn’t the usual kind of fear.

It had been quiet all day, far too quiet to feel normal considering all that had happened, and as much as he’d tried to suppress it, an insistent voice in his mind kept him on high alert. It felt like something was about to happen, something really bad, and every time the phone rang or somebody knocked on the door he’d found himself jumping up, ready to fight.

He finally reached his breaking point when the clock ticked past three in the morning and soon he was clambering out of bed and pulling on a set of clothes without a second thought.

Sneaking out wasn’t difficult. Snow and Charming both slept like the dead, all wrapped up in each others arms as though that was all they needed in the world to feel at peace. He walked quietly past them and was out the door within minutes, no destination in mind, but no uncertainty about which way to go, either.

It was as though something was calling to him. Almost like light vibrations in his mind. Like feather touches from familiar finger tips that were trying to reach him, and he knew that he was needed somewhere. He marched down main street with purpose, panic beginning to ebb as he neared his destination.

The library lights were off, but the lock on the door had been disabled and he sighed as he realised with certainty that this wasn’t some weird middle-of-the-night, half-dream/half-wake state of confusion. Faint sounds of a struggle reached his ears as he stood at the old elevator doors. Why no one had replaced the old machine with an elevator operable by one person yet was beyond him.

He frowned and slit his fingers in the inch-wide gap, pulling the old, weakened doors until they’d opened just wide enough for him to look down. The moment he stuck his head through, he was struck with grunts and clashes.

The elevator sat at the bottom floor. The drop was deep, but he knew he had no choice but to do this, so he steadied himself for just a moment before leaning outward and grabbing ahold of the wires. Henry was not the most athletic boy in his school. He’d not once managed to climb the rope; but descending would be easier, he reminded himself, before lifting his feet from the safety off the ground and swinging his body into the elevator shaft.

The sweat came instantly, dripping into his eyes and wetting his grip as he descended to the depths of Maleficent’s old prison; clashing and yelling and fighting became clearer with each drop of the rickety floor he stood on. He pressed the button to release the lower elevator doors, and was confronted with a sight that shook but didn’t surprise him.

Neither participant in the brawl had heard him arrive, both focused on one goal only. Terror shook his limbs as he recognised the bright blonde hair of the man dressed in black, but his feeble fingers formed rock solid fists when the vampire raised his hand and backhanded the woman in front of him.

The Queen went down hard, body thudding as she hit the floor, her head rolling limply as she struggled to remain conscious. Henry took a breath as the creature dropped to his knees next to her, taking her hair in his hand and wrenching her back to expose her bruised throat.

He was on the vampire’s back before he was even aware of his feet moving, his hands going to the monster’s head and pulling, wrenching with all he had to keep his jaws from reaching his mother’s throat.

The demon laughed, chuckled even, but stopped nonetheless. For a moment Henry almost believed he was strong enough to make an impact, but Van Drake proved otherwise, when, with a simple shrug, he sent Henry somersaulting towards the wall. He hit it hard, slumping to the ground, hands going to his ribs.

“Perfect,” Van Drake spat, his voice echoing against the walls. “I’ve been meaning to pay you back for the other day, seems I’ll get to kill two birds in one fight tonight.”

Despite the menacing creature stalking towards him, fangs bared, Henry smiled. Anything to keep him from his mother, who he noticed now was beginning to bleed onto the floor around her. Grimacing at the pain in his bones, he clumsily pulled himself to his feet to face the vampire.

“Such a foolish boy,” Van Drake drawled, “I shouldn’t be surprised, though, should I? The grandson of Snow White and Prince Charming… Two of the most hopelessly optimistic fools in all the lands.”

“If they’re such fools, how do you explain the villains they’ve defeated? The battles they’ve won?” Henry threw back. “They’ve come out on top every single time so far. What makes you think this will be any different?”

“You’re forgetting, dear boy, that the same is true for me. Only I’ve been alive far longer than any of you could begin to comprehend. We may all be enjoying winning streaks, but my history takes the cake, don’t you agree?”

Henry didn’t get a chance to respond this time because the next thing he knew, Van Drake was inches from his face, fangs bared as he breathed in the scent of him, “I think I’m going to enjoy this.”

Henry closed his eyes and braced himself for the bite that would end him. Instead, though, he heard the vampire grunt in surprise and opened his eyes to see that something had pulled him backwards so fast that he flew through the air similarly to the way Henry had earlier.

Drake yelled in fury on impact but was back on his feet in seconds, eyes narrowed at the Queen, who’d somehow managed to get to her feet, one hand clenched to her side and the other reaching back for Henry. As the vampire began to lurch forward, she screamed Henry’s name, grabbed his hand in a bruising grip and whisked them away in a cloud of purple smoke.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember to review :)


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